> What were the key ideas of the Bauhaus?

The Bauhaus movement  believed in combining creativity with manufacturing to produce good design. It saw combining art with as medium to solve problems in manufacturing products. Emphasis on the exploration of design and solving problems in design at the Bauhaus, influenced the way how art should be taught in education, this lead art to be rather be as a research science. Simplicity and affordance were the Bauhaus’s key desires in manufacturing products. They thought that manufactured objects should be able be clear about its purpose.

> Do you feel that the ideas could have an influence on contemporary games design?

I feel that the ideas of Bauhaus certainly can have an influence on designing games. I feel that the idea of simple and efficient design could help create game menus, user interface and assets. Creating affordance in games such as letting an object shine or presenting menus in a grid format and optimizing the experience for the player in an artistic way are definitely traits from the Bauhaus.

References:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQa0BajKB4Q

– Give some examples where you see games being clearly influenced by other work?

In the survival horror game, Resident Evil 7, it is clear that the movie Texas massacre chainsaw had an influence on the production of the game. The dysfunctional, inbred family in the Texas massacre chainsaw movie live in an isolated, derelict house and have scattered idols of human bones around different locations just as the Baker family’s rotting mansion. The Baker family dinner scene in Resident Evil 7 borrowed heavily from the scene in Texas chainsaw massacre, as both introduce the disturbed minds and sadistic nature of the family members, that the protagonists and player would have to escape from.In the action role-playing game, Dark Souls, designs of characters, tombs and monsters resembled many of those from the Anime Berserk. Siegmeyer from Dark Souls is a large character, his bulkiness and round shaped armour is almost identical to Bazuso from Berserk as he shares the same proportions and round onion-like shapes.   

1. A) Neural Networks are often used for predictions and/categorizing things. What ethical issues might arise from the use of neural networks when used for decision making in games?

The use of neural networks for decision making in games can lead to the game being quite unfair or one-sided, depending on how the decision making affects the player. For example, if neural networks are used for the programming of an ai boss that can dodge and block attacks, the experience for the player will be unfair. The reason for this is that the boss will have an advantage over reaction time to the player’s attacks, as the neural network will predict and calculate different possibilities of player’s next decision. Another issue the implementation of neural networks in AI has is that the AI could not follow its purpose. If the neural network is programmed to survive and attack the player, the neural network could decide to continuously dodge the player or move away. Neural networks can also make mistakes if it has not gone through cycles of the particular tasks it has been programmed for as it would not fully understand how to achieve its set goal this can also annoy the neural network and cause it to react strangely.

1. A) select one example to outline the key concepts of human-computer interaction. Reflect upon the role of the “human”, the “computer” and the “interaction”.

The scientific calculator and user, interact through the user giving the calculator an input in return for an output. The calculator has an interface where the values of the user’s inputs are displayed. Buttons on the calculator indicate that user should press these to solve mathematics on the interface provided. The buttons on scientific calculators are comprehensible to the user as they display standard mathematical symbols. When these buttons are pressed by the human, the calculator registers the value of the button as a code it understands.The calculator will then will display image of the pressed button on the interface for the human to see their input. The layout of the buttons on the calculator separate numbers, functions and symbols in order to be accessible and support the user’s needs efficiently. The scientific calculator’s layout is optimized to cater for different levels of mathematics. Symbols such as minus, plus, times, divide are grouped together as these are commonly used symbols to calculate simple maths. Symbols such as sin, Cos,Tan and pi are grouped together as these are used to solve more advanced mathematics. This layout allows inexperienced and advanced users of the calculator to operate it at ease.   

> A) Why could you say that the “Indie” game scene is not a new thing and explain, give examples ?

Modern released indie games tend to be experimental, unpopular or weird. However this is not new, many well-known companies such as Ubisoft and Nintendo started off their game development in very small studios, releasing games that were experimental and limited due to the technology available during those time periods. More people are now creating games as a hobby in their personal studios and more independent studios have evolved from this in the modern day. Programs such as Unity, Unreal Engine and Stencyl that are used by prominent game studios have been made free for personal use to the public encouraging game development for individuals. Web sites such as itch.io and Steampowered.com have communities where individual game developers can share their work and receive feedback. Such communities are largely visited by gamers and other developers so the indie game scene is something that the gaming community is aware of. In popular game store websites such as steam store indie games are being considered as a genre, although they tend to be multi-genres. This is because indie games have been recognised as games that are strange, quirky or unpopular to mainstream gamers.  The level of anticipation for some indie games are becoming competitive with triple A title games, this is because of the hype created through social media and funding sites such as Patreon and Kickstarter where the developers will showcase their game and receive support from the gaming community   

> B) Has the term indie become meaningless ?

The term indie has not become completely meaningless as the popularity of the development of indie games has given the word a different imagery. When using the term indie to describe a game typically a gamer would think of weird, experimental and unpopular themes. Referring to a game as indie creates the imagery of a game emulating the 90’s and 80’s experimental styles and keeping its flaws as aesthetic to induce nostalgia. The term Indie also communicates the idea of an individual or group who create work catered to people similar to themselves or to people who have interest in investigating personal work.

However, the term indie has different stereotypes attached to it. Using the term can be uplifting to describe a hard working individual’s product, but it could also paint such products with one brush as trying hard to be quirky, unique or clever. When a product has the word indie associated with it, the consumer may feel like an initiate to the creator’s work as the product is not popular in mainstream media, news or advertisement.   

In conclusion, the term indie has not become meaningless, but it has rather become a word that can depict work made by an individual similarly to every other creator trying to strive in a field, or a word that cultivates the sense of innovation to create a trend.