Multimedia Development Blog By Samuel Carroll

Reading 03 "doing" This week for the reading task we had to find readings for our sub topic so for me while my idea has changed since the last week I am now focused on the positive impacts games have on mental health. I then found three links to readings online and used the 3 pass method to these and then using the review matrix we did last week also.  With the first reading I used the 3 pass method and took the approach of Active Reading towards it as I looked at the author approach towards it and seen how he talks of the subject and gave it a quick glance over by reading the title and headings and so on. I then looked at the second read through by looking at the content of the paper and seeing at what the author has got to say about the subject. While for the third read through I found it quite difficult to do as by doing the first two read throughs I had started to agree with all the points the author has made and didn't feel like I had to question or challenge him in ...

 Games Testing While reading this weeks articles I found the first article interesting on how it talks of the different kind of game testing such as 'Performance Testing' which is the overall performance of the game and on how it plays overall. Another example would be 'Functionality Testing' which is when they confirm to see if the end product performs to its specifications. I also liked the at the major risks that can happen in game testing such as "If the Fun factor is missing in the games" while reading them I forgot at how much there were and how they each had a major effect. While reading the second article i didn't exactly enjoy it as much as the first article as the first is more small and doesn't overload you with information and while the second is very interesting to learn and learn about. While the second article I did learn about the software side a bit more on the first page and learned something that I probably wouldn't have learned ...

 Game Stories While reading the first article on 'What Every Game Developer Needs To Know About Story' I found it very interesting on how it talked about common misrepresentation on games saying "Story is Dialog" and "Story doesn't matter". This meaning at how that the dialog is the story in a game and also that story doesn't matter in a game when it really does matter. While reading further on and how it talked of classical stories work so well with it starting with a hero and his or her world being thrown out of order I thought of 'The Last Of Us' and at how it followed the same structure. Game Storyboard While reading the second piece of reading I liked at how it talks of narrative in a game and that while it has developed so much over the years it is also very quite tricky to get it right also, as it has a lot of implications to it such as cultural. I didn't realise at how it has been developing with the games along the way and throug...

 Week 9 Reading and Writing Looking back on all my overall reading blog posts I can say overall I rather enjoyed learning about new topics and materials like for an example I had no idea what a Game Design Document was before I started this module and what it was used for but now I know what its used for and exactly how its used and what its function is. Other new topics that I learned were that of a Growth Mindset and how it worked and really liked learning of how it works. I also enjoyed using blogger as well as I could put into my own words of what I thought of everything that I've done and at how I can add in my own style of writing and thoughts and can learn from mistakes and take on advice from classmates such as with my Game Project blogs where people would tell me on what I can improve on at how I could have done something better which I appreciate greatly. I also learned of Game Design, Game Elements, Games MDA, Game Decisions and Game Fun. All these have really helped wit...

 Game Fun While reading week eights readings I found the first reading interesting on how it talked about fun in a game and I liked at how it refers to a game like an older brother and someone that you look up to such as I did watching my brother playing video games. I liked at how it talked of how fun can be done in different ways and how fun can be seen differently by different people. I didn't really think about fun in a game I just enjoyed playing them I didn't realise the elements to fun and how it talks that there are eight different kinds of fun which can be seen below.  Fun In Games While reading the second document I found it delved into more detail on the fun experienced in games and at how it can be enjoyed more and more and at how it looks at the social aspects of games and although this seems to mainly refer to video games we can see at how the socials aspects help in both playing video games and playing games like kirb's as kids or squares with a football whic...

 Game Decisions  While reading the articles and video for week 7 readings I found it interesting in the first reading about how it takes time to learn new skills and at how like photoshop it takes 12 months for a basic level while this can be seen the same way in apps while in games you can become a lot better a lot sooner. It talks of how complex apps can be while with games you can lose a certain feature and it makes it a-lot simpler task at hand that must be complete and you find it easy to understand and can achieve it. This made me think a lot about myself playing games and using apps as when I played games I enjoy it and although it may frustrate me at times I learn and keep on playing while with apps I see that it not only takes a long time but you've to follow a boring video and for example photoshop in particular if your using that and its not working it'll takes ages for you to learn as your constantly getting frustrated at it.  Learned Skills In A Game While re...

 Games GDD While reading the first article on 'Communication and Game Design Documents' and on how game documents have a bad reputation and that not all the information and detail required can be fit into a single document for a game. It tells us at important keys needed for this such as it says 'Memory Aid' and 'Communication Tool' these are both important as you may forget your early concepts and also you'll be working as a team so you'll need to communicate with people. With a game design doc there are many parts to it which can be seen below here are a few examples 'Game Design Overview' and 'Game Design Doc'. These doc are well thought out and are designed for particular people and reasons like 'Know your target'. We see that these documents have to be well thought out and done in certain ways and take a lot of time to be done right.  The second article I read is that of 'How to Write a Game Design Document'. In this ...

 Games MDA/DDE While reading the first article on MDA i didn't have an idea on what mDA stood for as now I know it stands for mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics. I also didn't know that it attempts to bridge the gap across game design, development and game criticism and technical research. While reading the article further I seen at how the mechanics dynamics and aesthetics each have their own job such as with mechanics which has the particular components of the game. Then with dynamics it has the run time and acts on players inputs and then for aesthetics it follows the emotional responses in the player. With all these components the add up to a finished game.  Mechanic Dynamic Aesthetics For the second article I learned something new also on what the letters DDE stood for Design, Dynamics and Experience and how its an advancement on MDA. It tells us at how aspects of MDA was criticised and at how it focuses too much on mechanics and at how it isn't suitable for every game...

 Game Elements While reading the articles for the games for week 4 I found it interesting when it talks about "What are the Qualities of Games" and found at how each and every game has its qualities such as decision making and so on and thought about the question when it says "Think for a moment about what other things are common to all (or most) games." I thought about this and in my opinion I believe that the most common aspect in games is the that every game has a task for example we see in the mobile game 'Temple Run' that its endless and that your task is to survive and then the same can be seen in the game 'Cyberpunk 2077' where you must complete tasks such as completing a mission by going to talk to someone and so on. I liked at how it talked about game feedback and you gotta use critical analysis for a game as telling someone they like or dislike a game without explaining doesn't help the game developers.  While reading the second article...

 Game Design While reading the first article I found out at how hard it can be to actually give a definition to a game and that if you tried make a definition of yourself that it can be as the article says"Imperfect". Although it is hard we do know what is in a game such as it says in the first article "rules, story, action" while this is true it can also contain horror, drama and many other topics. While reading further on the the Reading One article I found at how you compare games to other games in the industry like for example you could compare Call Of Duty to Battlefield and so on. From reading the article I found it interesting on how simple it is actually to make a game which I created myself on a piece of paper that took less then fifteen minutes. You really think it's hard to make a game until it can be done rather simply even if it is a basic game. What I also found very interesting was the Games Defined section of the reading where it says" Games...