Character Bio 2 "Mazura"

What is you name?

Mazura Kuroda

What is your sex?

Male

How old are you?

26

What is your physique?

muscular/toned

Do you see yourself as a hero, and antihero or a villain?

hero

Do you have any scars?

none

Do you have any disabilities?

None

What is in your wardrobe?

Normal clothes, suits, smart

What are you wearing today?

Grey suit with tie and grey trousers

Show me how you walk.

Confidently

What type of person are you deep down?

Caring,

Are you happy?

Can be happy depending on occasion, usually cold and calculating, cynical, Phlegmatic

Are you romantic?

A bit of a romantic

Are you brave or a coward?

brave

Where do you live?

Small apartment complex, 1 bedroom apartment

What is your home like?

Clean, looked after.

What education did you receive?

High school education, police training, karate

What is your job?

Detective

What is your workplace like?

Usually looking at crime scenes, dead bodies ect.

What do you do for fun?

workaholic

Who are you friends?

Workmates, (names not known yet)

Who are your family? Your parents, siblings, etc?

Brother; Kazuma Kuroda

What is your back story? What happened before we met?

Parents were killed, father was a police officer who oppose a crime syndicate that controlled most of the police force. Became a detective in order to find their killer(s). Was forced to put brother in prison due to the presence of other police officers at the scene where he was found and the suspicious circumstances he was under.

What are your fears?

No extreme fears of anything

What are your weaknesses?

When my brother is in trouble.

What are your dreams, desires or goals? (Revenge, love, wealth, etc.)

revenge against the person who killed my parents, putting them in prison.

How far would you go to achieve you goal?

Beating people in order to obtain the information I need.

Again, sorry for formatting.

Character Bio 1 "Kazuma"

What is you name?

Kazuma Kuroda

What is your sex?

Male

How old are you?

23

What is your physique?

Muscular/toned, tall

Do you see yourself as a hero, and anti-hero or a villain?

Anti-hero

Do you have any scars?

chin

Do you have any disabilities?

None

What is in your wardrobe?

Clothes(shirts, jeans)

What are you wearing today?

Red short sleeved shirt, damaged black jeans, silver neck chain, pocket chain, nose piercing.

Show me how you walk.

Confidently

What type of person are you deep down?

Caring, likes to help people. Passionate, of the blood,

Are you happy?

Angry, unhappy, vengeful.

Are you romantic?

Toward the person I like

Are you brave or a coward?

brave

Where do you live?

One bedroom flat

What is your home like?

messy

What education did you receive?

High school drop-out

What is your job?

“cleaner” for a crime syndicate

What is your workplace like?

messy

What do you do for fun?

Play games

Who are you friends?

Very few people that are in the same syndicate

Who are your family? Your parents, siblings, etc?

Brother: Mazura Kuroda

What is your back story? What happened before we met?

Parents were killed, father was a police officer who oppose a crime syndicate that controlled most of the police force. Chose a different path to finding the killer of your parents to your brother. Joined the crime syndicate as a “Cleaner” in order to find out information on the one who killed your parents and get some pay back. Job lead to a prison sentence as I was set up by the syndicate on a job because they found out what I was up to. Now an escapee from prison and trying to find the connection between the syndicate and the killer.

What are your fears?

Suspicious jobs, fear of spiders which ended up as a hate for them from childhood experience. (teased by brother)

What are your weaknesses?

Being put in a bad spot and people using my past against me.

What are your dreams, desires or goals? (Revenge, love, wealth, etc.)

revenge against the crime syndicate who killed my parents.

How far would you go to achieve you goal?

Killing the person(s) who killed my parents.

Sorry for the spaced out formatting I couldn't get this to work right.

Caillois’s terminology

Roger Caillois is the author of Man, Play and Games which is an influential book on the sociology or play and games. Callois sees many of the structures in society as elaborate forms of games and many behaviours as forms of play. there are four forms and two types of play; The two types of play are Paidea and Ludus.

Paidea:
Paidea means to play for 'pleasure'. Pleasure can be achieved through playing any game that the player likes. The game could be, for example, chess and the player could gain pleasure through playing and winning. Another example of a game that provides pleasure for the player is a video game such as a first person shooter like call of duty. Pleasure can be achieved by playing virtually any game available but the players opinion of the game can affect whether the game is pleasurable or not. A chess player may not find playing a video game pleasurable and vice versa.

Ludus:
Ludus games are more constrained by rules and provide the players with a clear outcome such as a winner and a looser. An example of a Ludus game would be chess as each piece has its set roles e.g. how many spaces it can move and in which direction. Chess also provides a clear winner and looser at the end of each game.

These are the four types of play;

Agon:
A game that contains Agon means that there is competition between two or more players to become the winner or two teams fighting to be the winners. Chess is a good example of competitive play as it involves two players going head-to-head to win using cunning and strategy to outwit their opponent. Another example of competitive play in games that involve team play would be the video game call of duty as it involves skill to win the game and beat the opposing team.

Alea:
Alea games are games of chance or randomness. Alea games are slot machines and other similar systems in which chance is a major element. Another example of a chance game is snakes and ladders which uses a dice roll to determine how many spaces a player moves closer to the goal.

Ilinx:
Ilinx games are those which create a temporary disruption of perception, as with vertigo, dizziness, or disorienting changes in direction of movement. An example of a game that uses Ilinx is Dead Space, a third person horror, Sci-Fi shooter. a part that induces vertigo or a change of reality is when the player gets grabbed by a giant tentacle or is walking on the walls and ceiling in zero gravity.

Mimicry:
Mimicry is simulation, make believe or role-play. A good example of this is the MMORPG World Of Warcraft. I feel that mimicry applies well to this game as all the the mentioned elements are part of the game. Players can choose to role-play the characters in the game and the world provides a simulated environment for the player.

I found Caillois' terms very helpful and will use them/apply them to my later work.

Costikyan article 'I have no words i must design' notes

Interaction
Interaction is a choice with an outcome or a purpose. In my opinion a game has to have an outcome for what the player does. for example when a player talks to an NPC in an RPG that NPC will give them a quest. There has to be a possible outcome of a player talking to an NPC in order to make the player want to do so in order to give the player some control over the game state.

Goals
Any game will need goals that are set in the game, or allow players to make their own goals in order to be successful. Goals are objectives or interaction with a purpose.

Structure
Structure is what shapes the players behaviour while playing the game. The structure of a good game also depends on endogenous meaning. Endogenous meaning is a word that Costikyan brought from the world of biology to game design means "caused by factors inside the organism or system."
This word is used by Costikyan to state that the value of things such as an item that grants HP +10% in a game like Final Fantasy only has that value when it is in the game.

Struggle
All games have different kinds of struggles that the player has to overcome in order to win. Sturggle in games also gives rise to competition between players. Competition between players then gives rise to a way to improve and get better that can be found by the players.

In the beginning there is the designer (notes)

These notes are from a section from the book The Art of Game Design: a Book of Lenses > In the Beginning There is the Designer.What I learned from the chapter of this book is that i should build my own confidence by saying phrases to myself such as:
"I am a Games Designer"
"I am a Games Designer"
"I am a Games Designer"
"I am a Games Designer"
"I am a Games Designer"
I also learned to not let failures get me down as there are certainly a large amount of failures in the games industry and that I should learn from my mistakes and improve upon them. I also learned the need to listen to others for opinions and critique.
Costikyan mentions in his book Passion/Talent
This means that if you have talent and not passion you wont make it. But if you have passion you can develope talent with hard work.

ZOMBIE!

yes, ZOMBIE! heres my version of Phil Jacksons drawing from last fridays design methods lecture and i have to say I am happy with the result.

First Game post 2

Since my last blog post ive been tryin to upload my game but alas I could not find out.
Well since I can't find out how to upload the game for anyone viewing. Anyway here are some screenshots of my game:

This is the first screen of my game and it just shows the start of it before the ball drops and the player beings to play.

This second screen shows after the game has started.

As you can see the Bounce counter and the

HighScore counter have both increased.

The HighScore counter also changes accordingly

even when the game continues

Also if you want to play around with the game and change the code and whatnot just comment and i'll post it.

First Game

Im coding my first little game as practice right now. just using simple youtube tutorials so i get used to the idea of coding. not as boring as i first though and now im looking forward to how it turns out (hopefully no errors) and if i can upload it i will do so later tonight.

Todays lecture with Eddie

Today was our first lecture with Eddie Duggan who today gave us a lecture on an Introduction to Critical Games Studies. During this lecture we were asked to pair up with anyone in the room and ask each other a set list of questions while the person asking them was writing down the answers. The questions were;

1) What is the title of the book (fiction) you are currently reading (or the last fiction book you read)?
The last work of fiction that I read was a book called Shade's Children which was writtin by the author Garth Nix and is a brilliant book that I spent a whole day reading because i couldn't put it down, the book also gave me ideas for characters that i would like to design in the future.

2) What is the title/topic of the book (non-fiction) you are currently reading (or the last non-fiction book that you read)?
I actually do not know how long ago the last biography or autobiography that I last read is, I should probobly start.

3) What is the last live performance (music, dance or drama) you attended?
The last live performance that I attended was at a small festival called Brownstock where I saw Example who is a brilliant singer/song writer who was great and I had a brilliant night.

4) What is the title of the last fiml you saw at the cinema/online or watched on dvd?
The last film that i watched on dvd was Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows part 1 which is a brilliant film and the series has been a big part of this generations childhoods and has had several releases into the gaming industry with the release of each of the films.

5) How often do you read the newspaper?
I hardly ever read the newspaper. I am not a very big reader and most of the subjects covered in newspapers are not to my interests therefore I do not buy it.

6) Which art gallery / museum / exhibition did you last visit?
The last exhibition I visited was the Eurogamer Expo in london last friday which was a great experience where I got to play all of the games which have yet to be released such as Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City and Need for Speed: Run, as well as a lot of old classics such as Bomberman and Pacman.

7) How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?
This is a simple question and the answer is that I most likely play around 30 hours a week on games, whenever im bored.

8) How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?
I do not play any other games as I find them less fun than video games, with the exception of multiple player games such as Monopoly.

These are the questions that each of us asked each other and their answers. I found this experience enlightening as I fond that I spend quite a lot more time playing videos games than I first thought.

The team

The group im in is awesome and yesterday we brain stormed some ideas for what could be the flash game that we create. The theme is independence. This gave us a little trouble at first but we soon got to writing down some of our ideas on what independence meant to each of us and came up with a quick idea for our game which at the moment is leaning towards a point and click genre game. The colours mentioned were that it should be black and white with some colours that stand out with inspiration from movies such as Sin City and The Spirit. This is all for now as we have only had a quick 45 min sesh.