An interface is adevice used by a user to access the functions of a machine, website or other device.

An interface can take the form of physical buttons, sliders, knobs, switches, levers, pulleys, valves or buttons.

A form of interface relevant to our course is the GUI or Graphical User Interface. A graphical user interface is used in a game or on a website for the user to input information, navigate the website or menus in a game and also feedsback and displays information to the user.

For the first sesion of Designing for the user we were tasked with analysing GUIs used in video games which utilise Adobe FLASH.

After doing some research I discovered that autodesk have a tool called scaleform which is a module used in games to embed .SWF Flash files.

The autodesk websote contains a list of retail games which use this software; many high end blockbuster games use Scaleform which shatters the common assumption that FLASH is used primarily for cheaper quality games.

The user interface is an important part of any game, the user needs feedback from the actual game in terms of Health, Location, Objective etc and Scaleform is an important part user interface developement in modern games design

As an example of what I consider to be an efficient implementation of a gui I have chosen
Condemned: Criminal Origins to analyse.
Condemened is a first person game which is set in a grimy and viscerla urban setting. the game is overtly darka nd atmospheric, the Hud reflects this. The colouring is a grimy red, similar to blood. When the HUD is not in use (Combat, puzzle sections etc) It disappears completely keeping the screen clear of detritus that woukd otherwise clog the players view in a dark and claustrophobic environment.

In my opnion this is a good implementation of a HUD, it displays to the player the bare essentials, ammunition, health, battery for the taser and any objectives active.

Immmersion is a big part of games design and a good GUI helps immerse the player in the ficitonal world that has been created.

For an example of bad GUI I have chosen the FABLE on the orignal XBOX

While not necessarily a bad GUI overall; the theme and design of it is in fitting with the aesthetic theme and art style of the actual game, the thing that always bugged me about the HUD and Menus in FABLE is the fact that there is just too much GUI.

The on screen HUD is but one module of a complex system of drop down menus which are accessed from the D-PAD on the Xbox controller. After accessing the first menu, a list of categories appear. Weapons, armour, food etc.
Each one of the these menus has a sub menu, and so on so forth.

The thing is with the FABLE GUI system is that it is obviously meant for PC, making the Xbox version unwieldly and cumbersome. The actual design of the menu system is rather lacklustre too; each entry is just a transparent black box with text and a small arrow to inform the player that they can continue.
Despite being an incredible game, this unimpressive GUI system always annoyed me.

A simple solution would have been to replace the menu s and categories with a radial menu system like in Neverwinter nights.

This rotating pop-out wheel menu would have been much more suited to the analogue control stick of the Xbox controller and is a common staple in many games today, Bioshock for example features a quick to access and extremely intuitive radial menu.

In relation to the Games Design course, an ident or logo helps the audience identify the work of a production company and share their associated opinion (good or bad) with all products which share the logo.

For this semester we have been tasked with creating our own logo and ident. These visual identifiers will help to build up a corporate identity for our work.

I have begun to develop my own logo for my work based off the title and logo used for this site and other portfolio blogs we have created for the BA Hons Games Design Course.

Obviously the name is an important aspect, I have chosen Klockwerk INK as my “Company” name. I believe it unifies the industrial aesthetic of bauhaus graphic work and the millitaristic/utilitarian theme that I am aiming for with my logo.

To develop my own logo, I looked at examples of other logos, idents and stings used by game, film, graphic companies and anythign in between.

My primary aim and visual theme I had in mind was minimalism; a maximum of two or three striking colours, sans serif font and blocked lettering typeface styled around millitary and sci-fi oriented stencilling.
I imediatelly had several type faces in mind which I have used for previous projects but because this assignemnt requires creating our own personal logo which may (even by a long shot) be used commercially, I had to avoid using fonts created by other people.

Instead I used tpefaces found on the internet as reference, with a view to create my own at some point.

A selection of possible typefaces for reference. The Black/Dark Red colorus scheme is final, possibly with the addition of white for contrast.

To help develop the construction of my logo researched a variety of stings, logos and idents used by media production companies, film companies, arms manufacturers and any other corporate entity which seemed suitable for my intended logo.

As technology has progressed the quality and scope of idents and visual logos has increased dramatically.
The ease of access and widespread use of software packages such as Autodesk 3DS MAX, ADOBE Photoshop and ADOBE after effects has allowed production companies and developers to create interesting and diverse idents to attach to their work. Sometimes the ident is incorporated into the theme of the overall product.

For example; Electronc Art’s logo for Dead space shares the grimy, horror oriented science fiction theme of the overall game.

In comparison to the regular logo for Electronic Arts, the shape and format is the same, but owing to the horror theme of the game, several elements such as blood splatters, computer monitor display scan lines and rusted metal from the derelict spaceship featuerd in the game.

Dead Space Lullaby Trailer featuring the themed EA logo

A common feature in idents is to utilise 3D software to create fully rendered idents.
These Idents are more effective at engaging the audience, sometimes they can be mistaken for the beginning of the film or animation proper, a good example of this is Lionsgate UK’s Ident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCBY1IQLPnk&feature=related

While not necessarily a production company (Lionsgate is an American based independent film distributor) the ident is incredibly complex, utilising a pull zoom effect aswell as camera rotation to disorient the viewer and show the inner workings of the clockwork device (which the view soon learns is a complicated lock when the camera has fully pulled out to reveal the logo)

This cinematic and grandiose ident is iconic and I have chosen to use this as inspiration for my own ident; the sweeping and zooming techniques aswell as the colour and atmosphere (fiery and industrial) would fit well with my own industrial themed ident.

I first looked at pre existing casual games and the scope of titles and genres. I looked at this project with more of an analytical eye toward the business and marketing end of the spectrum; I hope to one day develop a game for one of the proprietary platforms used today: Smartphones.

We are in a unique position in the 21st century in that data is readily available no matter the location (barring isolated desert islands and land locked amazonian valleys of course) but this accessibilty to data also means accessibilty to games. As smartphones, Iphones and portable gaming systems have spread in popularity in the past decade due to advances in microprocessor miniaturisation, a burgeoning market has opened up for games developers.

Distribution costs and overhead for casual games development are concepts eradicated by the age of the smartphone, as most of the popular branded phones have easy access to the internet.
As long as the tools to create and develop a game are there, a core team of one maybe two people can churn out addictive, highly playable yet cheap games onto the growing market and use pre-existing games communities such as Newgrounds and other well established flash gaming portals to distribute the product.

While the quality of portable games has skyrocketed, the price has plummeted. Publishers and developers played a risky game releasing casual mobile phone games titles before smartphones; not everybody had the internet and the games themselves were lacking due to a lack of decent processing power on portables. This advent in the communications landscape has opened up a unique niche for games developers aswell as app and RIA developers.

My Project: HEIST

The first step of the project after the in-class research and discussion was my own independent research into the subject. Straight from the bat I conjured a rough template for what I was aiming for; a game that is accessible to the masses yet provides enough depth and strategy to the more devout gamer to keep them playing.

Another parameter for my concept was attainability; I wanted to develop something that I could actually create further into the course. I decided to go for a Flash game because of the ease of access to the software at university and my (admittedly limited) prior knowledge of the program.

My initial proposal consisted of three main ideas;

Firstly a point and click adventure game, an arcade style shooter and a strategy game.

I began to develop my first proposal, the point and click adventure game. I wanted a detective style adventure game themed around the Lovecraft mythos and visually styled in sepia tones and set in 1930. I looked at games such as Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the earth, Broken Sword and several bargain bucket “Hidden Object” games found on the web.

This was my favourite idea and the one I developed first. I’m a huge fan of Lovecraftian fiction and partial to the odd point & Click game too so this looked like the direction I was heading in.

However, for one of the other projects on the course, the Flash Development Brief, I helped develop a simple point and click game with my group. I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of merely recylcing the framework used for that project so I dropped “The Crimson Lotus” as I had named it and begun to focus on the arcade shooter.

Interest was lost quickly. After searching for about 5 minutes on the various Flash portals on the internet it was plain to see that this genre was saturated. The only development work I did on this idea was the original sketch on my proposal sheet and a map screen for the level select menu.

Which left my third idea.

Originally the premise was simple. You guided the player character through a series of mazes… I mean rooms, which had zombies prowling around. Rather than try to fight the zombies however, you had to evade them using stealth.

As I started to develop this concept I again lost interest in the theme, however I kept the core stealth mechanics and the project evolved into a stealth jewel heist type game, HEIST.

A while back I played Trilby: The Art of Theft an amazing stealth game created by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw of escapist magazine fame. I’d recommed giving it a play if you already haven’t it’s class.

From there on I decided to stick with the stealth theme and develop it.

Thus I came up with HEIST.

“HEIST is a 2-D Side scrolling stealth game centered around Samuel Emanuelle, a world class cat burglar extraordinaire. After escaping from a maximum security prison, Emanuelle picks up where he left off and scours the globe for pricey treasures. However, along the line he realises he is being stalked by a fellow thief”

That was my original summary.

The prototype I developed for the presentation is semi-interactive. I did have high hopes of creating an actual playable demo but that Idea fell by the wayside, the intricacies of Flash posed far too great a challenge for me at this stage.

However I have resolved to continue developing the idea and hopefully create a fully playable build before summer, making this my first personal project.

BELOW IS THE LINK TO MY HIGH CONCEPT DOCUMENT

INTRO TO GAMES DESIGN HIGH CONCEPT DOCUMENT

We begun by researching references of various castles aswell as the actual stronghold of Minas Tirith.
We based the layout of our level on the concentric tiers of Minas Tirith, creating an upward spiral of “wards” or sectors, each with its own distinct purpose and theme.

First I had to research the actual game of Monopoly. Although I had played it, some of the rules were rather ambiguous as was the game’s origins.

During my research I discovered that the original incarnation Monopoly has a troubled history.
The original incarnation, and arguale the first edition of the game was created by an American woman, Lizzie Magie. Magie created a game called the Landlord’s Game to educate people about the dangers of land tax. Magie applied for a patent for her game in 1903. Below is a copy of the original patent form, submitted by Magie in 1903. Although there are some differences, this is unarguably the first iteration of Monopoly ever created.

In 1910 she approached the head of Parker Brothers toy company to apply for publishing using the already well established Parker brother’s name.

At the same time, people in universities and schools all over the US had begun to create their own version of the game.

Over the next few years, several people would influence the design and rules of the game to transform it into the game we know today.

Eventually a version of the landlords game based on Altantic city, Georgia found it’s way to Esther Darrow, Charles Darrows wife.

Charles Darrow is the man usually credited with the invention of Monopoly. He approached the Parker Brother’s comany and applied for a patent in 1934.
His version of the landlords game was called Monopoly.

By this point the original version of the landlords game had been adapted many times.

Since then Monopoly has become one of the most popular board games of all time although there is an irony in the games success.
The game was originally conceived to educate people about the dangers of Monopolies in the free market. Elisabeth Magie was a follower of the Georgist economic ideology. The main focus of Georgist economics was their belief that land should be rented evenly, between the people but the goods that one produces remains the right of the creator. Therefore it is sadly ironic that the original intentions of the game have been skewed and distorted by the very system it sought to berate. Rather than be turned away at the concept of Monopolies, it’s main attraction is the lure of being at the top of the same monopolistic system that the Georgists abhorred.

References

Hasbro (2011) The Official Monopoly Site [Internet] Available from [Accessed 2 January 2012]

Orbanes, Phillip E. (2007)Monopoly: The World’s Most Famous Game–And How It Got That WayCambridge, Massachusetts

Bellis, Mary (2012) Monopoly Monopoly: The History of the Monopoly Board Game and Charles Darrow [Internet] Available from [Accessed 4th January 2012]

My Project

My original proposal included three seperate ideas.

The first idea was based on gangsters; each player would use a lego man as their token, each one dressed in different styles of suits.

The idea I had was to customize each lego man to resemble gangsters from films and games;

Tony Montana (Scarface)

Tommy Vercitti from (Grand Theft Auto)

Don Vito Corleone (Godfather)

Baby Face Nelson ( Public Enemies/ Real Life)

John Dillinger (Public Enemies/Real Life)

Bodhi (Point Break)

Each traditional Monopoly property would be changed to locales featured in gangster films. Locations such as Abattoirs, hotels, penthouses, mansions and warehouses. I chose to abandon this idea because it is already to similar to the original game of Monopoly. However, developing this concept made me come up with the idea which I would utilise for the battle system in my final project.

The second idea was a millitary themed conquest game based on RISK.

The Monopoly properties were changed to countries, each country had a price which reflected it’s oil reserves. I lowered the player limit to 4; each player would represent a superpower on the world stage, Russia, USA, Korea and China.

Each player would try to own as many properties as possible to reap the oil benefits. The tokens which would represent each player would be plastic army men, each one customized to represent each faction.
In addition, the hotels which are used in Monopoly would have been replaced with Oil Derricks.

For this idea I further developed the combat system from the original gangster idea and included variable factors such as terrain. Other ideas I created included complex combat mechanics in which players could request air support in the form of small toy planes to bombard enemies entrenched on harsh terrain.

However this idea was abandoned early because of its complex nature.

After implementing the combat system to full effect the game didn’t resemble Monopoly in the slightest.

I decided to cut down the convoluted combat system and adapt it into my third and final idea.

For my final project I chose to create a space battle game centrered around spaceships.

Stellar Empires: My version of the classic game

I have adapted the rules of monopoly to this new setting; the tokens are replaced with spaceships created from spare Warhammer parts and the traditional properties of Monopoly such as Mayfair, Fleet Street and Piccadilly are replaced with planets. Because of the science fiction setting, I wanted combat to be added to the game. Using a cut down version of the combat mechanic that I developed over the last two proposals, I implemented a simple combat mechanic using dice rolls.

If two players are on the same square they can choose to battle each other. Each player roles a dice and the player with the highest roll wins. The loser must pay the victor 50 Cr, if the loser has insufficient funds then they forfeit their place in the game. This creates a competitive edge to the game, and players can choose to use their cards (Entropy/Chance & Encounter/Community Chest) strategically. For example; if a player has a “Hydrazine rocket boost” card, they can move forward three spaces and land on a planet occupied by another player. they can then choose to battle the player.

Originally I wanted to make the combat system more advance, the original intention was to give each ship a unique card that describes its statistics. Each ship would have a certain strength, for example: a smaller ship would be more nimble and could move an extra two spaces. A larger ship would have thicker armour and therefore would be able to withstand an attack. I decided this would be too complicated to casual players and would deter people from playing.

The Board

This is the first board I developed for Stellar Empires. The layout of the properties is the same as Monopoly but each street has been replaced with planets. Instead of the traditional utilities (Gas Company, Electric Company and Rail Roads) the board features asteroids and Abandoned alien artifacts. Although this prototype board does not feature them, I added them in for the final board.

This is the final board I settled on for the game. The first board I had lacked detail. The negative space in the middle of the board was lacklustre. Aftre practicing Photoshop I developed knowledge and techniques to create a visually appealing and detailed board for the final piece.

The process of creating the board was time consuming. I developed a starfield on a black background using the noise filter in photoshop, I experimented with the levels tool to make the stars bright enough to be soon through the next two layers. On top of the starfield I applied a stock texture from the internet, used the multiply blending option to burn it through the starfield and make it blend well. After lowering the opacity of the detail layer I found it just right. But there was something missing. Using the line tool in combination with the smudge tool I created a wisp of cosmic gas across the starfield to add detail.
I then created a hexagonal grid in google sketchup, exported a .PNG of the grid and overlaid it onto the starfield several times, with varying levels of opacity and saturations.

Below is the result. The image on the left is the original starfield. The one on the right is the starfield with the grid applied.

The grid adds some much needed detail to the negative space, and creates a backdrop for the game grid to be overlaid onto. I decided to keep the original layout of the grid from Monopoly. I traced over the grid from an image of a Monopoly game which I found online and inverted the colours to white so the grid stands out against the backdrop of space. I also overlaid the same hexagonal grid onto the colour headings of each planet space on the board aswell as adding a gradient to add detail.

At this point I began to create the planets.

Rather than download images off the internet, I resolved to create each planet individually. The rationale behind this was that I would learn far more about the workings of Photoshop by creating them from scratch.

I created a simple sphere in photoshop for a template. Rasterized it, cut it in half and then changed the colour to black for a matte base. I then duplicated the layer, edited the colour and overlaid stock textures onto the coloured hemi-sphere and applied the multiply blending option to the texture layer.

At this point the planets looked too flat, they lacked dimension and detail. I applied a Spherize filter to the texture layer and scaled it back down leaving a small ring around the circumferce of the colour layer underneath to imitate an atmosphere. I was happy with the result.

I repeated this process using the planet template I created earlier to craft each planet individually. Although time consuming, I learned a lot in the process.

The Tokens

For the spaceship tokens for the game, I gathered spare Warhammer parts. Weapons and armour, turrets and tank parts formed the basis of the tokens. Below is the final result.

INSERT IMAGE OF SHIPS HERE

I only had enough part to create four ships, so I lowered the player limit of the game to four.

The cards

In the traditional game of Monopoly there are two sets of cards. If a player lands on either a community chest space or a chance space they pick up a card. Each of the different cards has varying effects. Some reward the player with extra money, others penalise the player. For my game I changed the cards to Entropy and Encounter cards (Because they sound a lot more futuristic)

Below is a table of each card, the name of the card and the effect it has on the player.

And here is an example of the finished card created in Photoshop

The process to create this card was simple.

I coloured the background grey and overalaid shapes onto the background. I added text and copied the hyperspace symbol from my final board into the window on the card.

I used the template for this card to also create the planet cards.

Below is a link to the manual and development document I used to create my final game.

Stellar_Empires_manual_ Done

For example; the visleaf method used in Source requires strict organization on behalf of the mapper.
The VVIS compiler subdivides the .BSP into leafs; planes are projected which cut geometry into small chunks. When the player is inside one leaf, the leaf and any leafs visible from the player`s position are rendered. Any leafs that are not visible from the player`s position are culled.

This creates problems when dealing with multifaceted brushes such as pillars.

Example of Visleaf projection from a pillar in Valve`s Source Engine

Vislefs are projected from each face of the pillar, eating up resources and compile time.

http://symbolcraft.com/graphics/bsp/

Joe Steele

Brief: Analyse and compare two well known gaming publications, compare and contrast them and compare against their online equivalents.

The two magazines I will be reviewing are magazines of the two main games consoles available on the market today: The Sony Playstation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360.

The magazines represent each console, Play Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine respectively.

The front cover of the Official Xbox Magazine evokes strong recognition of the actual Xbox console. This may be due to the fact that it is the official magazine. If the magazine was unofficial, the use of the theme colours of the Xbox console may be taken as copyright infringement by Microsoft.
The colours of the theme, white, grey and lime green are used consistently throughout the magazine. This is a very powerful visual cue which instantly informs the reader that the magazine is an Xbox magazine. Each next generation console has certain colours associated with them.

This is not only an aesthetic choice but a design decision that impacts the way that each console is viewed by potential buyers.

The Nintendo WII is usually associated with Blue and white; the baby blue and sky blue colours aswell as matte white are consistent with Nintendo’s family oriented target audience. The Xbox 360 is usually associated with green and white and the PS3 is usually black and blue. Each has a characteristic feel. The dark blue and black hues of Playstation are authoritarian. The Xbox 360 is vibrant, the colours associated with nature; this ties in with the organic design of the console itself with smooth curves and it’s aerodynamic aesthetic.

These schemes are usually consistent throughout games, hardware and the associated websites of the products, consistency in colour and design is key to creating an effective brand presence.

These colour schemes are also present in the magazines and the websites of each.

The official Xbox magazine has a large Xbox 360 Logo present on the cover. I believe this is so that potential readers can easily see the magazine when on a shelf in a newsagents. Nowadays there are hundreds of different types of magazines in large newsagents such as WHS Smith. There are magazines for every hobby or past time imaginable. Fishing, Remote control vehicle racing, hunting, model making.

Although these are rather niche hobbies, gaming is one of, if not THE most popular past time in the 21st century. There are dozens of different magazines for various console and platforms. Games magazines need a visual identifier that allows a potential customer to see the type of magazine at a glance among he hundreds of other publications on the shelf.

The large Xbox 360 logo coupled with the signature lime green is a very effective visual cue.
In contrast to the PLAY magazine, the Xbox magazine is much louder visualy. This may be a reflection of the demographic of the viewer for the particular magazine.
When researching age demographics for a given console, all of the evidence I found from online statistics databases and marketing research think tanks pointed towards the Xbox having a younger demographic than the PS3.
While this may not initially be of much notice when only looking at he front cover, the implications for the content of the magazine is surprising.

As discussed above, the demographic for the Playstation Magazine is slightly older than the Xbox.

This is reflected in the visual style of the front cover. The colours are a lot more toned down, overall the visual style is a lot darker than the Xbox Magazine. The interesting thing to note about the design of the Playstation magazine is the fact that they have adapted the primary colours of the magazine design from the main image of the page.

The feature game, Metal Gear Solid consist mainly of grey, black blue and white hues. This is adapted into the colours of the magazine. The main font of the cover is white. This gives visual impact contrasted against the darkened hues of the image and the headers of each miniature headline on the page is coloured ice blue. Again, this is adapted from colours present in the actual image.

The layout of the various text pieces on the page is also catered towards the central image. The various text pieces are arranged in two vertical columns on either side of the central image.
Content-wise, there is a lovely pun on the cover. The central image of cyborg Raiden has electrical lightning bolts surging down his arms. Underneath
the image of the electricity is a small line of text that reads” Shocking secrets of Playstation’s biggest series” Nice word play, PLAY.

Similar to the Xbox magazines attention grabbing technique of using the Xbox logo, the PLAY magazine features a graphical logo which contains the buttons on the Playstation pad. Triangle, square, circle, X. These symbols are iconic and instantly recognisable to gamers across the world.

An interesting note is the fact that the primary age demographic of the Sony Playstation 3 is a bracket of young males between 18 and 24. If we go back to the launch of Sony Playstation 1 in 1994 it seems highly plausible that the current user base of the Playstation 3 grew up with the first Playstation as children. This generation of young gamers would have been bought the new console for christmas or birthday and spent many hours playing Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the dragon.
Now those little kids are older and earning money of their own. What better gadget to splash their disposable income on other than the Sony nostalgia machine they grew up with as children?

Inside the front cover of each magazine is an advert for feature games of 2011. The Official Xbox magazine features a 4 page pull-out spread for Assassin’s Creed Revelations. After this advertisement is a double page spread for ID software’s RAGE. This advert is present in the Playstaiton 3 magazine also with a few subtle differences, namely the logo of the respective console which the magazine represents.
One subtle advantage that the Xbox Magazine has when it comes to advertisements is the fact that the RAGE advert featured in official Xbox Magazine also features a logo for Games for Windows which is a PC based software publisher. Technically Microsoft has the upper hand here because it is not only advertising a game for one platform but two.

The page layout and design of each magazine is markedly different. The Xbox magazine features bright attention grabbing colours and columns of text which are similar in format to menus on a computer. This concise, efficient way of displaying information is better suited to younger audiences who can read at a glance. The lime green and white colour scheme is also still consistent throughout the magazine aswell as the website.

Microsoft may have seen fit to retain the visual identity for consistency in design. In addition the magazine also contains orange sections which pertain to the Xbox Live service provided by Microsoft for the console. Xbox users will immediately recognise this scheme and realise that the sections in orange refer to the Xbox Live service.

The PLAY website is much of the same. A similar colour scheme is used to the magazine, the overall tone again is darker and more mature.

The content presented on the homepage is formatted in a similar fashion to the magazine. Thumbnail image give an idea of the image, then the accompanying article goes into depth.

A common feature used in both magazines is the inclusion of small sections which have information from social networking sites. In this respect, magazines are trying more and more to imitate electronic media, specifically websites. These little social networking widgets are present on practically every website in existence now.
Facebook and twitter are closely integrated with written media now, aswell as the online counterparts of the gaming publications.

At this point the difference in target market is clear. Every aspect of design and content for each publication, aswell as their online counterpart is tailor made to specific parameters which entice the respective target audience.

Despite having their own specific age categories, both magazines have a wider group to cater for that falls under the umbrella term of gamer.

Gamers, despite differences in age, have similar things in common. Zombies, sci-fi, robots etc. are the geeky domain of gamers the world over. Online companies take advantage of the common love of gamers by aiming merchandise towards them. Regular soft drinks marketed as zombie blood and health potions appeal to the eccentric taste of gamers.

Despite their unique appearance, these items are usually just regular products, packaged differently and sold at thrice the price. This displays an ability on behalf of the publishers and affiliates to capitalise on nearly aspect of gaming culture. Magazines advertise costume and science fiction conventions, gaming related merchandise aswell as games themselves. Gaming peripherals such as controllers, speakers and specialist gaming headsets are all displayed alongside the feature games they take their image from.

Evidently, gaming magazines are not necessarily informative and entertaining publications for reading about ones favourite hobby; first and foremost they’re a breeding ground for advertising an marketing personnel.

Words- Joe Steele
Images – Respective Copyright Owners

Sources:

http://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/ESRB-Video-Game-Facts-Demographics-Infographic.jpg

http://www.knowyourmobile.com/blog/1136275/apples_ipad_more_desirable_to_children_than_xbox_and_playstation_3.html

http://www.play-mag.co.uk/magazine-issues/play-212-mass-effect-3-exclusive/

http://www.oxm.co.uk/

http://www.nintendo.com/wii/console

http://press2reset.com/2011/12/05/sony-to-aim-ps3-at-younger-demographic-in-2012/

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007055

The below are images that were used as reference for my design.

And below is a design I came up with using the various references for an airship refuelling tower.
The tower is used to offload and load cargo onto the airships that dock on the top platform. There is a central elevator that brings crates and passengers up and down to the tower to the streets and cargo area below, where the various freight is distributed by steam train to shops/supply depots etc.

Various Castles, with the layout of Minas Tirith being the focal point of the design.

Close up shots and an aerial view of Caernorfan castle. The polygonal layout of the battlements would be more ideally suited to the awkward Google Sketchup program. Google sketchup hates curves

Various designs of alien architecture from Half Life 2 and Resistance fall of man. Both games feature semi-organic alien architecture that slowly assimilates itself with current human buildings for their own ends.

References for the different props and model assets you might find in a medieval castle.
 

Tudor inspired house designs from the various Fable games. The current concept artist and illustrator for the Fable games, Emrah Elmasli has a very intersting stly to his work.
Like with all of the fable games, the cartoony style evokes a sense of childishness but masks a deeper, sinister sense. This is the visual style we are aiming for in our project. Cartoon-esque, but still with a sense of realism and sincerity.

Below is the inital concept sketches our group came up with for the basic design of the castle, aswell as various monsters we designed to be incorporated into the level.

Brief: Analyse and compare 5 websites within a specific category. Analyse the contstruction of the sites and compare to each other in respect to design, layout, colour, contenent and effectiveness.

The categories I will be comparing are:

Accessibility: How easy is the site to navigate
Design: How visually appealing is the website?
Content: How is the content displayed, is there any technical limitations of problems in accessing the content on the website?

Although there are 3 categories, I am writing these reviews and awarding scores based on the design and accesibility rather than the actual content of the websites.

Many of the games on one website are featured on the otherwebsites too.

Some of the websites create their own games in-house. Where appropriate I will analyse these and include them under content.

The websites I will be 5 websites which host and create flash based games for web users to enjoy on whilst they are supposed to be working at the office or listening intently to a lecture at university.

Miniclip.Com

Armor Games.Com

Newgrounds.Com

Kongregate.Com

Stickpage.Com

Since Adobe flash was released, web users and creatives have been using this relatively simplistic toolset to create fun, casual games. The main reason behind the popularity of Flash as a game creating platform is the ease of accesbility. 99% ofinternet enabled computers have flash player installed*

Copyright, Adobe Corporation 2011

As far as web safe media platforms go Flash far outnumbers the competition.
With so many people using Flash Player, flash games cross market gaps that certain platforms could not conceive. As the popularity of Flash games grew on the internet lareg companies and business entities began to take notice. Of the two advantages that appealed to them, the first being the ease of access by potential consumers, the second advantage was extremely low overhead. The development cycle of a flash game, because of its relatively simple nature, is but a fraction of the development cycle of a fully fledged 3D game. Thus the cost is marginal in comparison.
Understanding the vast market for these simple yet addictive games, you can see why exactly there are so many different websites that host Flash Game content. Some are more succesful than others and one in particular (Newgrounds.Com) broke ground for the potential business of marketing Flash games as retail games to console companies.
One extraordinary, and ironic advantage that Flash games websites have is the advertisement by word of mouth. The usual domain of Flash game websites are offices, schools,universities etc. This confined space allows peers to exhchange information on various websites. It is ironic considering that, despite the almost instant communication speed of the internet, websites are still being passed on by word of mouth. A form of communication that pre-exists the internet by millions of years.

Miniclip.Com

Miniclip is among the most popular Flash games websites on the internet. As Flash games have progressed onto other electronic devices such as smartphone and hand held games consoles, Miniclip has gained a huge surge in popularity from small games developers to make games for specific platforms.
It has got to the point where flash games are actually being sold for various consoles. As you can see on the home page (above) there are specfic sections of the website for various smartphone models. In this case, Windows phones and Google’s Android platform aswell as the majority of the site being centered around PC based flash games.

Accessiblity

The Miniclip home page features a gridded category panel, where the most popular categories of games are displayed. This is to allow quick access to the user to a game which they may want to play. The easiest way to find a game after all, or any information for that matter, is to narrow it down to a category. By displaying the most popular category first, the site allows faster navigation.
Underneath the popular categories is a large text list of other categories.
Everything from shooters, adventure games, RPGs and even text based games is displayed here.
This allows users looking for a specific game or genre to easily navigate to it.

Design

Personally, I think the Miniclip site is terribly organised and garishly designed.
There is too much displayed on the screen, the colour scheme does not match at all and there is an excess of negative space.
On a more technical note, there are 4 animated advertisements present on the above screenshot. Whilst this may work fine on this computer, it may be disaterous for a slower running connection.
Even on a page which features only one game, the majority of the screen is taken up by advertisements, thumbnails for other games and other miscellaneous graphics.

Overall this detracts from the actual experience of playing the game which the user came to the site to play in the first place.

Content

While the website itself may be rather lacklustre, the actual content is excellent.
Miniclip does not necessarily create games, usually they just host them or advertise them. Because the Miniclip brand identity is popular on the internet, they advertise games to give them more exposure.
Therefore the actual content of this site is not limited to this site. Most of the games on this website are also probably featured on many other flash game websites.

Overall

Miniclip is not necessarily the best website for hosting flash games, in fact there are more featured in this review that are far superior. The thing that makes miniclip stand out though is the fact that when Flash games were becoming more popular, Miniclip was one of the fastest growing sites and is still, today a large entity in Flash game hosting on the web.
There is another site however, that gained much more from the Flash games boom in terms of mainstream expsoure and monetary value which we will see in the next review…

Summary

-Bad Design, terrible colour scheme and busy layout. Not visually appealing
- Overuse of animated advertisements can lead to connection slowdowns every so often
+ Features some rather decent games and a very large selection aswell as cartoons.

Armor Games.Com

In a lot of respects, Armor Games is incredibly similar to Miniclip. This website started off small time hostign various Flash related games and cartoons but as the format grew more popular, so did Armor Games. The home page, as you can see above, is a lot clearer and more concise than Miniclip’s. The popular games section is a lot more organized, and easier to see.
Armor games, like many websites these days, has a community built in. This entails that users can create an account on the website and sacve their information to the sites server; data such as game scores, scoreboard rankings and which games the user has played.
This is relflected on the home page where you can see a scoreboard of ranked players in the bottom left.

Accesiblity

  The Armor Games website is a lot more accessible than the Miniclip website. The categories are neatly displayed a list and the most popular games section is layed out in a grid which is easy to see.
Because the Home page is less cluttered than Miniclip.Com, it is far easier to navigate from page to page.

The interface is much more clear and this is reflected in the fact that it is easier to find your way around the site.
Several categories are slo neatly displayed along a toolbar at the header of the site, a traditional practice for categories or pages on a web site but is highly practical and allows for great ease of accesibility.

Design

The armor games website has a far better design than miniclip, although it is still not perfect.
The two primary colours used on the page, green and blue, clash with each other dramatically. While this may have been intentional to separate visual data, it is unsightly and detracts from the clean, organized aesthetic of the site.
However an interesting thing to note is that in the top right corner is a small tab .

This tab leads to a web page that features a preview of a new site design, which I must say is far superior.

Although there is a technical issue at the moment with the beta (as you can see from the error dialog in the top right) this new site look is far superior. The colour scheme is much more muted and dark. The colours actually match and fit well together and the layout is far more proffesional. The interface bar at the top, the new logo and even the advertisements look far more proffesional and mature.

This evolution of style fits a lot more closely to Armors style in my opinion. Compared to Miniclip, the games that are featured on Armor Gamnes tend to be a lot more adult, gory or mature in nature.

This serious, more moody and tonally darker style makes the new Armor Games beta stand out from other Flash Games websites.
As far as I’m concerned it is a step in the righ direction.

Content

As mentioned on the previous page, Armor’s games tend to be a lot more mature than miniclips.
There is gore, elements of horror, action and psychological horror to be found in some of them.
This comes down to personal preference, but I much prefet to play Armor Games, because they are a lot more serious and look a lot more photorealistc (in some cases) they are more immersive and are more suited to my age.
However, in terms of marketability, Miniclip wins hands down. Because of the lowered age limit, the games featured on Miniclip can reach a much broader audience.
Even the individual game windows are more effective. Armor Games game windows are free of excess detritus that would otherwise detract from the actual gaming experience.

As you can see from the above screenshot, a the Armor Games game, Last Stand:Union City (Top)
Is far more dark in tone and realistic in graphics than the Miniclip.com game Commando 2(Bottom)
While this is only representative of two games, it is generally typical that each site has it’s own aesthetic. Miniclip is more rounded, brightly coloured and garish and Armor is darker and more angular.
Obviously each site caters to different demographics.

Overall

Despite the fact that I am at a bit of a bias (I prefer Armor Games myself) I can still safely say that Armor is superior to Miniclip in terms of design and navigation. Both concepts go hand in hand to be honest.
While Miniclip’s navigational icons are clustered close together, Armor Games are spread out by a few pixels. This creates a small border of blanks pace between each icon that makes them easier to see, and in turn makes the site easier to navigate. This subtle design choice has a greater impact than you would at first think. Coupled with the fact that there are far less animated advertisements, Armor Games Home page is a lot more concise and proffesionally put together than Miniclip’s.

Summary

+ Elegant and Contracted design allows for better navigation
+Actual game content is a lot more cinematic and in turn is more immersive
-Current design is still rather conflicted, primary interface colours for home page clash a bit too much
- Although the actual game screens are a lot clearer, a quick design implementation could be to use a screen blackout method, such as in the next review for Newgrounds.Com while avoiding creating taxing resource usage on bandwidth/CPU

Newgrounds.com

 
Newgrounds is the posterchild of flash hosting websites. Created by Tom Fulp, one of the first succesful flash entrepeneurs, this site is probably the most famous flash games and cartoons website on the internet. It was definitely one of the first. Since it’s inception, Newgrounds has reached mainstream critical acclaim, has signed deals with Microsoft, Unity and other developers to broaden the platforms for which games can be used.

The iconic Newgrounds tank logo is displayed at the top, featuring the sites consistent colour scheme of Yellow on black. This contrast has created a visually unique design aesthetic that is now synonymous with newgrounds. The categories are displayed with thumbnails and a consistent Header and short caption for each game to display the nature of the gameplay and the featured games have their own window above the category.

Accessibility

 
The Newgrounds home page may seem visually cluttered because, well, it is. But the format is concise. The two panels on the left and right advertise games which sponsor the site, the middle interface is the actual site piecemeal, each panel is bordered off and contains a heading in yellow, an attention grabbing technique which works well and remains within the effective colour scheme of the site. The bordered panels allow for easy visual identifcation of categories and pages within the site and the toolbar header at the top contains popoular categories which even further subdivide the organisation of the site into cohesive chunks.

Newgrounds is also a very community oriented site. A large majority of the work submitted has been created by members of the community. To further ease accesbility, a user is able to search for a game by the creator, by date, by genre, game type (3D, Isometric, Platform etc.)
Despite the staggering number of submissions to Newgrounds, it is extremely easy to locate any one particular game or cartoon on the site.
Design

As I stated before, Newgrounds design aesthetic is extremely prominent. From the colour scheme, the logo, even the name newgrounds is extremely well known in internet circles.
The greatest asset to the design in my opinion is the colour scheme, it helps so many aspects of the site such as category grouping, category seperation, interface and category heading.
A very interesting and unique concept used on Newgrounds is the idea that each user has their own unique avatar. While the idea of a web avatar is not exactly unique, the usage of the avatars is indivisual to Newgrounds.

Each user gains reputation points for submitting work and commenting on the Newgrounds forum part of the website.
This creates a kind of meta-game on the site between the various users and creates competition between community members similar in implementation to a Role playing game. The users are assigned experience by submitting worl which increases their level. Each level has a title and a graphic associated with it.

Content

Because the Newgrounds portal is predoiminantly user submitted, there are a vast amount of variations between quality and entertainment in each submission. Some are extremely high quality, professionally created immersive interactive experiences and some are complete crap.

The way that the quality of submissions is assessed is through a rating system inwhich players and community members can rank a game. Users can also leave comments (usually verbally attacking poorly skilled game creators)
Newgrounds also features some games that are created in-house by a design and development team and there is at least two games on the site which were actually programmed by the same person who created the website: Tom Fulp.

The most prolific of these games is Alien Hominid. Originally released on Newgrounds.Com in 2002.
As the Newgrounds fan base and community grown, the two creators, Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp decided to pitch the game to console games companies. At this point Alien Hominid had received much critical acclaim for it’s addictive nature, difficulty and nostalgic throwback to old-school arcade shooter games such as Contra and Metal Slug.
Alien Hominid is possibly the biggest success stories of Flash video games.
Overall
Newgrounds is an exception in tha case of Flash video game hosting sites. It is extremely well put together because of its commercial nature. It was one of the first flash game and video hosting sites on the internet, as such it has a much longer run at the market. Because of the attention gained and money earned, the creators of Newgrounds have been able to turn the site into a fully functional business entity. There is even a royalty system in place where community members who submit outstanding material can sell extended and uncut versions of their games using payment methods such as Paypal and credit card.
However despite it’s critical and financial success, it is not without it’s own flaws.
In my opinion the vast amount of content available on the site makes it highly impractical for the site owners to moderate. Despite the methods In place, (Presence of moderator staff and community ratings and feedback) there is still a large amount of sub-par content on the site.
 There is also a secondary problem associated with the amount of submissions on the site. The most popular submissions often have a cult of personality associated with them. People reference them, spoof and parody them and imitate them until the cows come home.
This creates a problem when searching for popular submissions. If you type in alien hominid for example, looking for the original game…

  A huge list appears, with the actual, original submission being found near the end of the list.
   And that is only the first page.
    The only way to filter these results is to either trawl through each game on the list or find the date of submission, author or ranking.
There are no search filters in place currently on Newgrounds. While a only a small gripe, it is one worth mentioning.

Summary

+Unique Community-oriented rating and experience system
+Excellent, extremely proffesional design and layout
+The crème de la crème of Flash games
-Some of the worst flash games imaginable
 

 
Kongregate.com

Kongregate is up there with Newgrounds as one of the better Flash portals on the web.
The actual home page is very minimal, the colour scheme being drawn from the Kongregate Logo

The combination of red, white and black; like newgrounds black and yellow, is a great and extremely effective visual indicator for brand identity.

Accesibility

 
The Kongregate site is extremely plain, it’s minimalistic style is perfecly suited to fast browsing.
The contracted menu at the top has drop down sub menus. To browse for a particular game, the categories have been placed in a small menu, negating the use to take up space on the front page.
This frees up space (bandwidth and CPU memory) to display the featured games.
Personally I much prefer the efficiency of using sub menus than graphically dsiplaying eeach category for various reasons. The main being that is just much more practical.

Design

The design of the Kongregate site is great. As stated above, the minimalism has a knock on effect on navigation for the site. The interface is much cleaner, organized and visually attractive than even the Newgrounds site. While Newgrounds is much more prominent on the web, I personally prefer the style of the Kongregate site.

The individual game screens are really clear.

The home page header is constrained at the top so you can access game categories from any page. The only gripe I have with the individual game screen is the fact that ther are several tabs on the right of the screen. Althought they are not overlaying the actual game screen , it seems as if they are. This makes the screen feel a lot smaller and is kind of annoying. Apart from that the usual conventios present on each website are here.
Below the game screen is a list of instructions and links to other games aswell as advertisements which link to other games. (Usually pay 2 pay or monthly subscription games such as Evony or AdverntureQuest)
Overall I prefer the stark, minimalist made-for-web styled design of Kongregate to any of the other sites. It just seems a lot more proffesionally made. Although Newgrounds for instance has a lot of financial backing, the pages featured on it seem far too busy.
Content

 
After sampling some of the feature games presented on the front page of the site, I can say that the content of the site is excellent. A lot of the games on the front page are user submitted, of varying type, style and genre but all of them are top notch. The rating system on the site is responsible for this. Each game is awarded a score out of 5 for quality. Games that are awarded consistent 5 stars are placed on the front page.

The score and other information of the games are displayed in the annoying tabs at the side of the game screen. Whilse this saves space, like I mentioned earlier it detracts from the gameplay immersion.
While there are games featured on the site that are from other developers such as Miniclip and Newgrounds, the Kongregate games are extremely good quality.
Much like Armor games, Kongregate is aimed towards older players, some of the games being rather gory or disturbing.

Overall

I love the whole design philosophy behind Kongregate. The minimalism, colour scheme and utilitarian approach to interface , categorisation and organisation are something which I believe is needed when dealing with websites such as these. However their approach is a two sided blade: while I personally enjoy the design, there may be other who think that the layout and aesthetics are boring and lazy, even thought that may not be the case.
Kongegate so far is my favourite, it embodies the elements of great design which I aspire to utilise in my own work. Concise, neat and elegant.

Summary
+ Great design
+ Great games
+Compact navigational interfaces

Stickpage.com

Stickpage is a Flash art submission site dedicated to stick men.
As ridiculous as this sounds, there is a whole fan base forstick man related flash cartoons and games.
While this is slightley removed from the format and purpose of the rest of the sites in this review, Stickpage is still at heart a Flash Game portal… albiet for much skinnier characters.
The home page is rather impressive and stlyed well, the cool blue colours interacting nicely with the different shades og grey and black featured on the page. The only clash on the home page comes from the advert, but that can hardly be helped. After all, without the money gained from sponsors, the website probably wouldn’t be running at all.

Accessiblity

The problems of the other sites reviewed don’t necessarily impact Stickpage.Com because of it’s rather unique theme.
While Newgrounds had hundreds, if not thousands of separate categories and formats,
(Cartoon, Music, Still art, Games, Multiplayer games, 3D games etc.)
Stickpage has only 4 categories.
Games, Cartoons, Humour and Forum.
The site is very accessible. The above vertical menu is repeated horizontally across the header at the top of the site.
And then again at the bottom of the page. The featured movies and games, like the other sites, are featured on the home page. They are thumbnailed and tile nicely, the whole page is formatted well allowing for easy navigation.
The buttons and interface on the site are styled well, and stand out from the background without being too bright.

Design

Again, like with the Kongregate site, I like the lack of clutter on this site. The cool blue and grey colour scheme is easy on the eye and makes the actual thumbnails stand out.
Despite the ridiculous theme of the site, the art present on the front page is actually decent. Above the header is a gruff looking millitary stick man wielding a flame thrower. You would expect ridiculous art for the theme, but it is actucally surprisingly well presented.
The games page is laid out nicely, with rectangular tumbnails rather than the traditional squared thumbnails present on the other websites.

Content

At the top of the page is a looped animation of two stick men playing a stick man fighting game on a console. A nice touch that brings the page to life.
The website on the whole looks as if it has been made piecemeal in Adobe Flash, rather pertinent considering the content. There seems to some kind of culture, an identification with Flash on the internet. It is remarkably symbolic. There has even been animations made inside Adobe Flash that is set inside Adobe Flash.

Animator vs Animation breaks the fourth wall in a humourous style that Flash users and fans of Flash animation alike are familiar with. In the animation, a stickman drawn in Adobe Flash breaks out of the confines of the program and begins to attack the mouse cursor using items and tools found in the Flash toolbar.
Although there isn’t an abundance of content on Stickpage site owing to the theme, the content that is present is of good quality. The only exception to this being the cartoons and games made in antiquated versions of Flash. Bad sound quality, stuttering frame rates and jerky animations ruin the experience. Which is a shame, because the best content on the site is from a series which first surfaced when the obsolete version of Flash was still being used.

A Curious Case of Chinese Copyright (Bonus Article)

Xiao Xiao, a series of stickman animations, is one of the very first cases of a casual flash animator gaining finance and recognition for his work. The creator of the series, a chinese man named Zhu Zhiqiang created the series in the style of old kung fu movies. A protagonist named Xiao Xiao fights gangs of enemies, who are also stick men to the death before finally facing off against his rival: The Big Boss. In the older days of Flash animation Zhu’s Xiao series was insanely popular despite the bad sound quality and sometimes jerky animation.
As his animations gained more recognition on the internet Zhu started being noticed for his animation prowess by companies in his native China.

In this frame Zhu’s recurring character Xiao Xiao holds a bottle of Heineken beer and replicates a choreographed fight scene from the Matrix Returns.
That is not the only interaction with big companies Zhu has had.

In 2004 Zhu Zhiqiang sued Nike corporation for copyright infringement when they used stick figures similar to his own in an advert that aired in America.
Lawyers represenetative of Nike argued that something as arbritrary as a stick man cannot be copyrighted, but the internet was behind him.
Thousands of users all over the world took sides with Zhu.
It wasn’t the fact that Nike used a stickman in their advert, it was the fact that the way he ,moved and the actions he made were identical to Xiao Xiao videos.
Zhu won the case and was awarded $36,000 despite the Fact that Nike appealed.
This just goes to show that with a little bit of creativity and patience, Adobe Flash can produce some amazing stuff. The websites that I have reviewed are all testament to this. Wwithout the thousands of casual animators and game creators all over the world working from their home computer or theit basement, these websites would not exist.

Overall

Despite the Stickpage website being centered around, well, stickmen; the layout and design of the website is surprisingly good. The implementation of the looped animations on each page is a great addition to the site.
The actual content of the site is decent considering the theme and the success of the stick man is a strange and interesting concept that even broke through to the mainstream.

Summary

+ Nice design, simple and fits with the theme
+ Decent artwork and aesthetically pleasing colour scheme
-Stickmen,
-Stickmen Everywhere