Trying to like games...

Growing up I never really played video games, and instead was encouraged to make my own games and toys. At the age of 6 my first ever game, which I chose myself, was an interactive encyclopaedia for the computer... My games didn't get much better, when asked to choose another game when I was 7, I went straight for the BBC Walking with Dinosaurs 'game' (again it was more like an interactive encyclopaedia). It wasn't until my 10th birthday when I had my first gaming device, the Gameboy Advance, which I only ever had 7 games on (over the span of three years buying games..). Then when I was 14 I had a PS2, just as the PS3 was released, and still only have a handful of games on. Two years ago I finally caught up with technology and got a Wii, but again we only have a couple of games, and mainly go on it for Just Dance! Computer games were also never a massive part of my childhood, other than The Sims franchise which my sister and I used to play on obsessively, as it was one of few games we were allowed to play on.

So you can see my trouble joining this course, where I worried I wouldn't fit in with these gamers who have been playing for years. I still move the controller when trying to steer on car games, I can't kill anything on fighting games and proceed to chuck the controller and scream and simply run out the room, and the closest I am going to get to playing any games is by watching flatmates or friends playing on Skyrim.

So with this module I have been determined to check out other games (online as I don't have my own gaming device) and find games which I think that I would actually enjoy playing, in the hope that I can save enough pennies to by a PS3/Xbox and have a go myself!

Here we go.....

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

The first game I looked at was Uncharted, I really liked the progression of how their environments were visualised, even if the game isn't particularly up my street. I especially like the last image, with the breakdown of the four different images. My personal favourite of the four is the top right, as it shows the initial sketchy drawing which progressively has been coloured. The lighting and depth of these images is amazing, and really makes the town come to life, even though they are supposed to look lifeless!

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD

Another unlikely game that I didn't think I would have an interest in was Monster Hunter, but I loved their character design. Even though in this module we are mainly interested in the environments which the character will be interacting with, I especially like the cross hatch shading rather than using darker tones.

Alice: Madness Returns

As much as I used to love the Alice In Wonderland franchise, I think that it has been over done now, and often the original concept of the book is twisted in so many ways to try and develop different meanings, that it has just became over the top and I find really uninteresting and boring. I miss the happy tea parties and the white rabbit! As much as the idea of this game highly annoys me, some of the concept artwork is interesting, especially of the environments. I really love the texture which is created with the fine detailing and choice of colour palette and tones used. Although I don't enjoy the characters  design, I found it interesting how they drew out the same image but in a variety of slightly differing ways. I also really like how they test out the shapes of Alice's body in different poses in a blocked out silhouette with limited detailing in white. I may even use this technique when drawing out elements for my game, to check that the items are recognisable and even stylised before creating them in 3D.