“We find you need to make a game wrong at least two or three times before you find the right path. We took a lot of time to design and explore, knowing that a lot of it would be thrown away.” – Monument Valley lead designer, Ken Wong

I am someone who has a multitude of ideas, a lot of them go wrong, but I always come out with something that works. This isn’t only apparent in game design it’s self though… it happens in my written work, presentations and everything else I do.

I think my overall progress in the question pairs has turned out rather well. I answered them all as best I could, included all the necessary references, images, and even my own images in some of them. I like that the questions were each about their own subject which led me to research into other subjects. For example; in the ‘HCI’ answer, I talked about ‘BCI’ (Brain Computer Interface) which I didn’t know much about until I researched into it more. This went rather well for me as it’s not something I have done much of before. I usually only researched into to things I already knew about as I was scared of looking into new areas that I may get wrong. But this research really helped me to understand ‘HCI’ and ‘BCI’ in a better way.

Copyright was a very interesting and beneficial lecture for me. I didn’t know much about this subject and was scared to look into it as you always hear law suit horror stories, especially in the industry of game development. This lecture with Adam, especially the questionnaire at the end, really opened my eyes to what copyright actually is, and how miss-informed most people are to it, myself included. I have learned how important copyright is in the games industry, especially indie developers. It not only protects my own work, but stops me from plagiarising anyone else’s.

The Barbican project has changed my thinking a lot. Typically I would research areas, things, places, etc that I like. However, I didn’t like The Barbican a lot. This showed me that in the industry, whether you are indie or more well known, you will still have times where you are working on things that you do not enjoy. This is a bad way of going about tasks. If I worked in a game company as was told to 3D model a plain, boring box, I couldn’t just complain about it and get assigned something else, I would have to get on with it, otherwise I would be out of a job.

In the end, I enjoyed the Barbican project. I got a really good idea from it, made some concepts that I am really proud of and would of loved to take the idea I had further. I do not think my presentation was all that successful though. It fell short compared to some people’s. If I could do it again I would include more of the concepts from my book and expand them even further to block out my idea, but I would also need to take a step away from my comfort zone of concept art and take a step into the verbal aspect. I didn’t talk a lot about the idea, I just briefly spoke about what was on each slide. This was what made my presentation fall short I think. So I would also make sure to note down some rough “selling” points to talk about on each slide, sort of like a rough script for myself. This would greatly improve my presentations in the future. I would also try not to go into a project with a bad attitude towards it. This just leads me to not putting my full effort into it, leading me to eventually fail. From now on I am going to go into all projects with a neutral outlook towards them, to keep me from shooting myself in the foot.

What do you see as the positives and negatives around copyright?:
I see the protection of your own creations as a positive of copyright. As a game developer, knowing that all of my assets are safe, ensures that I can do what I want with them. I don’t want someone ripping a mesh from my game and using it in their own for free, without anything being done about it.
Something that I am seeing a lot lately, especially in the world of video games is law suits. Big companies suing smaller ones for names, people suing company’s for compensations due to their game affecting them, company’s suing cheaters, etc. To me, it seems that they are just doing it as a money grab. They seem to try and find any excuse to sue someone just to get money.

Is it possible to make anything new?:
Yes it is.
In video game terms, I don’t think a yes or no answer will suffice.
Every now and then there comes a great game; ‘Bioshock’, ‘Witcher’, ‘Dark Souls’. But only one of them is unique. In that example it is ‘Dark Souls’. Yes it’s an action RPG, but they have taken that and made it unique by adding a classic arcade twist to it, where when you die, you restart. A simply twist, but that is all it takes to make that game unique and loveable.
I do not think that there is ways to make game mechanics that are truly original and never done before these days. Everything has been done. But, I feel that making a unique game is not unheard of these days, as my above example shows; taking a standard game and adding your own twist to it. Or, merging two games together.
“I really wanted to create a narrative-led game that mixes elements of open-world adventure with point-and-click titles.” (Hartup, 2017) This is exactly what I am talking about, merging genres together, to create new genres. It creates great results!
It only seems to be indie developers that are trying this method though. I rarely seems amazed by big company produced games, as they are always the same rubbish copied and pasted every year to drag in more wallets to keep their companies a-float. I think it the bigger companies put their time and money into making games that were more unique it would change up the current market. It would force other developers to do it too, producing more fun and different games for use to play.

Bibliography:
Hartup, A. (2017). Zelda meets Twin Peaks in… Falling Sky, the game you’ve never heard of, made by one person, and up for one of gaming’s top awards. [online] gamesradar. Available at: http://www.gamesradar.com/zelda-meets-twin-peaks-in-falling-sky-the-game-youve-never-heard-of-made-by-one-person-and-up-for-one-of-gamings-top-awards/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

Some definitions state that AI is when a system thinks/acts like a human and other definitions state that it is when a system thinks/acts rationally. Why do you suppose AI developers wish to hold up human intelligence as a standard rather than pure logic?:
I think they do this because we are the “smartest” species we know. Nothing on the planet can compete with our intelligence, so comparing something that we are trying to make intelligent is the easiest comparison we can do.
I think it also has this competition sort of component to it. This competition revolves around whoever can program an artificial intelligence that can mimic human intelligence the best. And that’s all.
In terms of video games, I think this has its place. Especially for characters in games that are human. So giving them an AI that one could compare to an actual human seems logical. But, for other NPC’s in games, I don’t think this is the best. For example an animal or alien. For the animal the AI should just act in a highly logical way, as they do in real life, but we shouldn’t be able to perceive it as smart or stupid in the game, we should be able to compare it to an animal.
Now the alien; this is something that I think could act in either a smart way, or a logical way similar to the animal AI. This is because it is something that has no real comparison in the real world, therefore can act in the game however the developer wants.

A lot of people are scared by the prospective of AI. What do you think would be the ramifications of us achieving true “strong” AI?:
Personally I think those people are overreacting. The whole “AI’s are gonna take over the world” thing is stupid and has no research/proof backing it. Humans will always be smarter than AI’s, end of.
However, I think that in time, a long time, there could be a sort of… freedom to how an AI could work. For example, it would be able to actually communicate to humans, rather than being programmed to say things. This would be something that would really advance media such as games and movies. If the NPC you were talking to in a game, was actually talking to you, in its own words. That would be like entering a new world.
So far, these are all positive things. There would definitely be negative effects from this type of advancement. The programming time, especially to implement into a game, would probably be ridiculous thus making the development process of games take even longer.
The AI’s could eventually be changed to be used with things such as windows, it already has Cortana who likes to annoy you every update, but imagine if Cortana could actually talk herself, and you couldn’t just simply turn her off. She is the only way to use the computer.
“Unfortunately, there will always be limits of AI, which is why Grobman states that human-machine teams will be key to solving increasingly complex cybersecurity challenges” (Kh, 2017)
It is already being implemented into security at an early state like this. But image a future where someone could hack into the AI of a bank, then they gain full control of the bank. It could make cyber terrorists, criminals, etc operate more frequently and with more ease.

Bibliography:
Kh, R. (2017). How AI is the Future of Cybersecurity. [online] Infosecurity Magazine. Available at: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/next-gen-infosec/ai-future-cybersecurity/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

Select one game of your interest and explain why does it have a good/bad game UI:

I am going to go with a game that I am very fond of on this one, which is ‘Dark Souls 3’. Not all of the UI in ‘DS3’ is horrible, but it needs to be improved in a lot of areas.
This screen shot I took in game of one of my characters. This is the so called “statistics” screen. It displays to you all of your character statistics, but, I feel it is just too confusing. Especially for new players. It’s full of numbers, different names, weapons slots, and all these other confusing things. The worst part about it, is at no point in the game do you get a tutorial where it goes over any of these or what they mean.

They did include a help button at the bottom, however, it doesn’t help. It just describes to you in little details what a few of they stats are, mainly the attributes. It does not explain to you where the numbers come from, how to change the, what they mean for you, etc.
Example number 2; this is another screenshot I took. This time I am in the “Equipment” menu. This one is better in my opinion than the “status”. The thing that I think is bad in this is how it displays some status elements from the other menu.

On the right hand side you’ll see the same confusing words and numbers from the first one, I can see why they would have done this, but I don’t think it works. This is meant to be an inventory menu, so why not just have the inventory screen that is one the right hand site, the “additional effects”, “number held/stored” and “equipment load” status as that is all they need to include.
I feel that the additional status on this screen not only makes the menu too cluttered for the player, it also reminds them and adds to the confusion on the game. All of this leads to a bad UI in this game.

Discuss how technology augments human abilities. Reflect upon the implications of the future of HCI:

“Advances in cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging technologies have started to provide us with the ability to interface directly with the human brain. This ability is made possible through the use of sensors that can monitor some of the physical processes that occur within the brain that correspond with certain forms of thought.” (link.springer, 2017)
I have seen a lot of things on the internet mentioning or talking about BCI, which is Brain Computer Interfaces. This is where a computer is controlled only by a human using their brain.
It’s not something that is amazingly complicated at this time, but It has seen some good progress, especially with games. This image is from the video that is probably the most famous scene of a BCI in use on the game ‘Pong’.

It doesn’t necessarily augment human abilities, but more along the lines of; makes them easier. It takes away the use of hands from a computer and allows them to use it with thought alone, which to some people, seems like something from the future and amazing. But to me, it seems like another gimmick for money, a lot like ‘VR’ was. It even resembles a ‘VR’ helmet…
However, I feel that developments like this will have a big impact on the future of HCI (Human Computer Interaction), as it opens up new ways of people using computers. Image turning your pc on with your brain, then using Youtube or Spotify by thinking about it. It would revolutionize computers on a global scale.
Not only computers. Mobile phones, laptops, game consoles, calculators, watches, vending machines, even cars. Anything that has or is operated by a computer, that can be interacted with by a human, will then have a new interaction method opened up by this. So imagine “Brain Car Interface”. You want to start your car? Just think about it. It’s go future written all over it, and it isn’t a fantasy.

Bibliography:
Tan, D. and Nijholt, A. (2017). Brain-Computer Interfaces and Human-Computer Interaction [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

Choose one of the indie designers / developers and outline why there work and approach is of interest to you:
Larian Studios have recently gained a massive success with their game ‘Divinty Original Sin 2’ which is a Role Playing Game developed for Pc and Xbox. “Larian Studios is an independent RPG developer founded in 1996 in Gent, Belgium.” (LarianStudios, 2017)
The first time I encountered Larian was when I saw their kickstarter for ‘Divinity Original Sin’, in 2013. It was a prequel to another game they made called ‘Divine Divinty’. I personally do not trust kickstarter anymore as there has been a lot of scams and wrong doings happening on their, but, given their history and proof of game development, they got their money and made the game. It was a huge success. So much so that they later produced ‘Divinity Original Sin: Enhanced Edition’ in 2015.
What I like best about Larian is how they kept the fans up to date. They would post daily updates at first, then as the development got more demanding it turned to weekly updates about the game. They also provided all the fans, backers, etc with an alpha and beta build of the game everytime is was update to ensure that what they were paying for was worth it. They also treated their fans and people who weren’t fans very well. They had a few backers who weren’t happy who were immediately refunded and apologized to.
This is something that is very important to an indie developer, customer interaction. Because you don’t have a father company to fund or make you, the only thing keeping you going is the players. So having them like you and your creations is vital to your success. This is something that I would want to happen in my own indie company, whether I am just an employee or the employer.

What do you think could be the most exciting indie projects that are in development:
I am very excited about an upcoming indie title called ‘Ashen’, in development by ‘Aurora44’.
“Ashen is an action RPG about a wanderer in search of a place to call home. There is no sun and the natural light that exists comes from eruptions that cover the land in ash. At it’s core, Ashen is about forging relationships.” (ashen-game, 2017)
I saw this game on the E3 livestream earlier this year and it stuck out to me for a number of reasons; Firstly, it has an amazing, simplistic low poly visual style to it, which I love. Secondly, it has clearly taken inspiration from the ‘Dark Souls’ series, heavily in terms of gameplay. I love the ‘Souls’ series so to me, this is a big plus.
Now that I have read more into the story behind the game, it has made me even more excited. Especially the part about their world having no sun and little natural light. This immediately sets the tone and mood of the game for you, before it has even been released.
None of the other indie games I saw on the live stream peaked any of my interests, not because they weren’t different but simply because they were not any of my favourite genres of game, so this one is the only indie game I am currently exited for at this time.

Bibliography:
Ashen. (2017). About. [online] Available at: http://www.ashen-game.com/about/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].
Larian Studios. (2017). Larian Studios. [online] Available at: http://larian.com/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

Select one example to outline the key concepts of the interactive narrative genre?:

The most recent one I can think of is “Life is Strange” created by Don’t nod Entertainment. It is an interactive narrative game, about a young girl called Max, which gives the player the ability to rewind and change the past and future. “The idea behind interactive storytelling is to reconcile narrativity with interaction.”(Ercim.eu, 2017) It features all of these points that make in an interactive narrative game; a well written and engaging story that is told to the player as they progress and narrative choices for the player to engage in.
But a game doesn’t have to include them to be interactive and narrative. It just lies in them two words. First being interactive; it has to have some way for the player to actually interactive with the game, such as; moving, deciding, figuring out, etc. It also has to include narrative, usually in the form of a story. I don’t know how else you could include a narrative without a story, but I am sure there are ways.

Does the interactive narrative still have a role to play in video games today. Give exemplary examples?:

Yes it does. Ever since TellTaleGames started producing and saturating the market with interactive story games, such as: The Walking Dead, Wolf Among Us, Tales From the Borderlands, etc. Players, such as myself, have realized how fun them types of games can be. I don’t agree with the amount of games that TellTaleGames have produced, but I do want to see more, especially if they are anything like The Wolf Among Us. TellTaleGames, do interaction the best (so far) that I have seen, they make you feel really engaged with the character you are playing as, and you feel as if you have a big toll on the story. However, I would prefer it if the games produced were original an entirely created by the developers, because obviously all of TellTaleGames productions are of someone else’s work, so more along the lines of Life Is Strange. To date, I think that is the best Interactive Narrative game ever produced. And I would openly welcome more games of it’s type into my library and so would thousands of other players.

Bibliography:
Ercim.eu. (2017). Interactive Storytelling: the Rise of a New Game Genre?. [online] Available at: https://www.ercim.eu/publication/Ercim_News/enw57/cavazza.html [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

What does the term avant garde mean?:

From what I learnt in contextual studies when I did games development at college, the term is someone or something that is not accepted as normal. “Avant-garde is originally a French term, meaning in English vanguard or advance guard (the part of an army that goes forward ahead of the rest).” (Tate, 2017)
To me, it seems that people who produced avant garde creations were simple just people creating something knew, and unseen before. This forced a shocked response from people, which then generated this avant garde term from them.

Is it still possible to be truly ‘avant garde’? and if so provide game examples:

In the games industry, I don’t think it is. There is no game anyone can make that will be totally unique. It will always have similar parts to another game, such as and RPG will have the same leveling system, any shooter will have the same gun mechanics, etc. However, I think there are some areas where people can be unique to an extent. Art styles, lore and game mechanics are the biggest three that stand out to me. For example, Doom 2016 plays like any other shooter, however you have to perform finishing moves on the enemies to gain health picks ups, and you have to kill enemies with a chainsaw to gain ammo for your weapons that require no reloading. This added a level of avant garde to the game, as it is something that has never been seen in a shooter before.

Bibliography:

Tate. (2017). Avant-garde – Art Term | Tate. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/avant-garde [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].