Mario Analysis

Super Mario Kart:

Super Mario Kart is a 1992 go-kart racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. Being the first of the Mario Series, the graphics did not have much expertise to them and used 16 bit to create the game. Action Huds are used where the traffic light shows the player when to start.

Mario Kart 64:

Mario Kart 64 , a 1996 go-kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was the successor to Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and is the second game in the Mario Kart series. It was released first in Japan on December 14, 1996, and in North America and Europe in 1997. The graphics are more developed than the first Mario Kart created and the map has been added to the HUD, as well as new scenery.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit:

In 2001, a third game was added to the Mario Kart series, this was Mario Kart: Super Circuit.  It is a kart racing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. The game is the the first for handheld consoles, following Mario Kart 64 (1996). The game retains traditional game elements of Mario Kart set by its predecessors, and upon release, was well received by reviewers. However the graphics seemed to have backtracked with a more 16 bit feel again, coins were also added as something to collect.

Mark Kart: Double Dash

Released in 2003, Mario Kart Double Dash had a large improvment of graphics. The HUD itself had also changed, a speedometer has been added and the fonts of the game have change to be more bold and easy to see against the bright colours of the HUD.

 

 

Mario Kart Wii

In 2008, Nintendo released Mario Kart Wii, it kept the same font as the previous game but the HUD changed slightly. Your place in the race has moved to the bottom left of the screen to make room for what object you have in possession. The map is also now the only way to see who is behind you in the race. Graphics aren’t as good as Double Dash but the game holds a rather old feel to it.

Mario Kart 7

Mario Kart 7 took a different approach to HUDS, unlike it had in the past, it became a lot less crowded, with only your place and possession on the screen. Your view of the game has also changed, you now see from the drivers POV.

Mario Kart 8

Mario Kart 8, released in 2014, Mario Kart has now expanded massively, with choices of loads of different maps and amazing graphics. The HUD itself has become a lot more simple than the first ever Mario Kart released, with only the lap, collection of coins and your place in the race, it has left more room to see when playing the game.

HUD Moodboards

Having looked over many different HUDS for my car game, I mostly noticed that many of them have same aspects but usually in different sort of designs.

As well as this, I viewed real car dashboards and created a moodboard for it below.

 

 

Architecture Festival Evaluation

For this assignment, we had to create a poster for the London of Architecture event. After looking at many examples from the past, I decided I wanted my poster to be modern and simple. These were some I came across that I particularly liked.

I began by sketching loads of ideas into my sketchbook, developing on them throughout as certain things I did not like and/or wanted to change. The few ideas I came up with had a very modern feel, all but one as I wanted diversity in my options. After sketching out the ideas, I moved onto creating them on Photoshop, a software I’m familiar with and did not struggle to create a poster on.

The first idea of a poster I came up with was this one, this was more of a practice as I did not end up using it in my three designs. I mostly didn’t end up using it because the text was too close to colour as the background, I changed it a few times but to me, only this colour seemed to fit, but I knew that would not draw in peoples eyes.

At the start, the windows of the buildings were white, however this seemed too bland so I tired to add some colour into it by making all the windows different colours from each other.

This did not change my opinion on it though as it still looked too simple.

 

I started a new one and I wanted this poster to have an old feel to it, hence the brick wall, but a modern picture of London inside. Although I did like this one, I wasn’t to keen on the idea overall, as it seemed to bland. I could of used a better photo of London looking back at it now, as the one I used had low lighting and didn’t show much of the fact it was London.

The text was also a struggle to work with, as no matter what colours I used, it didn’t seem to stand out from the bland colour of the bricks. White would blend in too much where the date of the event is, I wanted all the text to be clear and readable.

So I decided this would be one of my three designs.

 

I took a different approach to the next poster, using my modern ideas I had collected from researching. I did really like this one, as I worked hard on making the text visible and the colours balanced.

Taking ideas from the first practice one I made, I used the idea of buildings but wanted it to be smaller, so rather than being in a rectangle, I changed it to a circle and had the windows hold a gradient effect so it did not distract too much from the whole poster itself.

As I believed this one would be my final choice, I stuck to it, but then decided to make one more, just incase I preferred it to this one.

 

The last one I created came out to be my final design, I decided to bring in more aspects of London to it as the event is based in London. I looked over pictures of famous buildings in London and decided to use the London Eye and the Shard in my poster. I incorporated them together to create an image that would stand out.

I used light colours so peoples eyes would be drawn to the poster straight away, however I made the text darker so it is easy to read. I liked this poster the most because it had more details than the others and included aspects of London which I had only included in one previous idea. I am pleased with the way I made the Shard and London Eye, using pen tool, brush tool and shape tool. I believe is came out really well done.

After experimenting with different colours I finally decided the one featured above was the one with the best colours and the easiest to read.

I remembered to keep the logo on all of the posters as it was important to keep it to show what company would own it. I am happy with my final result as of experimenting with loads of different ideas.

Hope in animation

The word ‘Hope’ has a different meaning to everyone, with some believing the meaning that comes along with the word and others just seeing it as something stupid, its quite a controversial thing.

Hope to many people is wishing and dreaming for something they want to happen and events play out how they wanted it too. Although to many others it seems to be something made up to lift peoples spirits.

It takes different meanings for different people to understand Hope.

Animated films that show the sense of hope include Bambi, and Lion King. Although there are many more, these three films include a mass amount of hope that can be seen throughout the films.

Take Bambi for example, Bambi is a young deer who unfortunately loses his mother at the very start of the film, all seems lost till he meets his father, who he hopes can continue to look after him, Bambi grows into a young stag who through the hope of his father, becomes brave and meets a doe.

Moving onto Lion King, I believe this animated film out of all three is the most hopeful one. It starts with a young Lion named Simba who hopes to one day become a king, but all hell breaks loose when he witnesses his fathers death and proceeds to run away in fear.

He comes across Pumba and Timone, who both have hope of a better life, especially with their saying “Hakunamutata”. Towards the end of the film, Simba returns to Pride Rock and with Hope, defeats Scar.

Hope in my animation will be displayed as a small ghost named Bertie is unable to scare anyone in the old abandoned house he haunts. However by hoping, he eventually scares someone who moves into the home and becomes friends with them.

 

 

The Game Industry: Legal & Ethics

Regulations & Compliance

Regulations is the restrictions, licences and laws applicable to a certain product or business, imposed by the government.

Compliance is when organisations follow laws, regulations, guidelines and specifications to do with its business. Violations of this can result in legal punishments, including fines.

Certain intellectual property rights include; characters, storylines, code and designs. IP rights legally protect ideas, symbols and creative expression. It can be bought, sold, traded, given away and licensed.

Certain things in my game that would need this array of things is the name of my teams.

Types of protecting IP

Copyrights protect a persons or a groups original expression of the idea into a tangible medium. Copyright protection exists from the moment an author fixes an expression into tangible medium, this means that the moment you save your code to disc or sketch something out for a game, you instantly have copyright protection without having to do anything else.

Mostly all games had copyright laws, as if someone was to steal the idea, you could be sued. Copyrights do not protect the idea or concept, only the actual expression of the idea.

Other symbols include Trademark, Registered and Service mark. Trademarks are identifying symbols, words or devices used to distinguish the trademarked good from other similar goods. Service marks identify services.

My game would need a copyright protection due to the names of the teams and the story based around it, Chinese gangs fighting against each other.

Trademark rights prevent others from using a mark that is in similar. However this does not prevent others from making similar goods and selling them under a different trademark. When creating a trademark, you must be able to tell it apart from others so they are easily distinguished.

Examples of trademarks include:

After registration, you can then switch to ®, or continue using TM, as this does not lose you any rights.

Licenses

Licensing of video game characters or the use of other IP licenses in video games is very common. A license agreement covers the terms under which the two parties may agree to work together. The license agreement covers points such as duration of the license, how and for which products it may be used and how much is paid in consideration for using the rights.

Regulation

Regulation games is a very serious subject in the game industry, games have to be reviewed before they can be placed on the shelves, to make sure it suits audiences. They have to have specific ages and certain warnings so players know what to expect when purchasing a game. Many games will not be sold to anyone under the suggested age on the box.

These symbols are always on the back of video game boxes, so when viewed by a possible buyer, they aren’t going in blind and it can allow parents to be aware of what their kids are playing.

My game would need this, I would rate my HUD as possibly 12+ due to it having violence and guns involved.

HUD Evaluation

I started this assignment by creating a weekly schedule so I would have a guide to follow whilst starting off the HUD design process. My weekly schedule shown here, I tried to keep it as detailed as possible with easy to read sections so I would not lose track of what I was doing.

Alongside following the brief, I started with research on car games and what they normally have to make up a HUD. Then I proceeded to pick a car game I particularly liked, I chose Forza 6 and began looking at the main aspects it entails, as well as taking ideas for my own HUD.

Creating the hud for my game was a new experience for me, I used photoshop to edit my final piece – which is a program i’m familiar with but I did struggle slightly with. For my background i used google maps. The tools that i used for the HUDS were text tool, shape tool and brush tool.

I began

I based my HUD off the HUD in Forza Motorsport 6 which uses very simple details so you aren’t distracted from the game itself. I wanted to have some similarities but not entirely be a carbon copy, aspects that I was inspired by was the realism in the graphics, and the layout style. I also viewed real life dashboards to give myself an idea of what my HUD would possibly look like.

 

At the start of the assignment I began sketching in my sketchbook, creating different ideas to eventually be developed in to one whole idea. I started with my team names, calling them White Dragons, Raiders and 21 BOYZ.

Upon naming them I began to draw logos and develop on them further. I then chose a place for my HUD to be based in, I chose China Town as the idea of my game is based around Chinese gangs so I believed it would fit nicely.

After creating the base idea of my game, I created a final design by basing it off Forza motorsport 6, thus producing my own HUD.

Car Game Recording

My first car game recording is more for smooth driving, possibly a background track for cut scenes to give it more of an edgier feel.

Forza Motorsport 6

Forza Motorsport 6 is a racing game tied to a series of Forza games, it is the most recent one to be brought out, sixth Forza Motorsport and eighth installment in the Forza series. Developed by Turn 10 Studios and published by Microsoft for the Xbox One, its reviews are overly outstanding and show the game has potential. It includes new gameplay elements such as rain and night racing, giving the game better emersion and making it more realistic. As an addition, they added 70 hours of story mode game play, usually having a story with a car game is an added plus as players have an aim to complete the game.

Compared to Forza Motorsport 5, it has a large improvement in graphics and cars, their is 450 cars, thats twice as more than Forza Motorsport 5. The graphics in 6 are well improved and the motion graphics of the game are much smoother. Their are three different modes you can view when in a race, theres being in the car, then the back of the car and then the front, it is optional during races which one you’d choose.

One the screen there is multiple different things to keep your eye on, which could be seen as slightly clustered by some players. In the upper left hand corner, your place in the race is visible, as in whether you are first or second, etc. In the upper right corner you can see your overall time and the time you have spent on that one lap. The lower left corner shows what lap you are on and also a map, then in the lower right is a speedometer, keeping track of your speed.

Although having these things on the screen could be helpful, its slightly clustered. I believe my own Hud on my car game will be slightly different.

Architecture Moodboard

I created this moodboard as an inspiration for our first assignment, the London Festival Of Architecture posters. I will first be sketching ideas in my sketchbook then moving onto digital designs.

Adjustment Layers; Mini

During Keirans lesson, we had to change the colour of this mini by using adjustment layers. First you copy the background image and then make a selection using the quick selection tool. Once you have selected around the mini you save the channel as “mini” then proceed to colour in the mini of a colour of your choice. Once colouring it in you change normal to colour which will make the car look painted the colour you chose.