Archive for May, 2009

The pros and cons of creating video games based on movies

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

There are just one reason why it is made video games out of game and there is an expression covering it to perfection. Milking the cow. They want to squeeze as much money out of one concept as possible. They desperately want to get the last piece of money out of the movie by pumping out all sorts of merchandise including a half finished game on every console known to mankind. The reason they do it is that they know that it works. People do actually buy those games for some unknown reason.

The fact is these kind of games don’t do us no harm. It is not like we are forced to buy them and they don’t stand in the way of game designers making good games since they are mostly so fast made and made by companies that have no good games it doesn’t matter. The games can be entertaining for children, but most of them are short and repetitive. The obvious major factor that drives developers and game makers to make this is the profit. When people buy it then there is money in it and then it is worth it for them. Every game designer makes game for profits and if they can get easy money out of people that enjoyed some movie then they will try.

There are of course annoyances for us gamers when 90% of the games that are released don’t appeal to us at all. You have some crap games, some children games and then the wide specter of movie games. Some of them are actually good of course, but those are the one mostly based on old movies. Like Star Wars games and Lord of the Rings games can actually turn out good. However then you have the games made together fast so they are released within the momentum of the movie. Games like every single Disney game and games to such things as Lost (the TV series) and all one hit wonder movies. Like the Eragon game is a good example of thrown together. This does not hurt the game industry, but it certainly doesn’t help it either that some companies spend time on that kind of crap instead of releasing quality titles. If people would just stop buying half assed titles put together from random cut scenes from a movie and bad gameplay we would have no problems with it. But until that day the unwanted games will remain as they are no so unwanted as they should be. As long as those games stay away from me I’m not going to complain too much.

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Video game reviews: The Sims (PC)

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

There are few games more talked about than those created by Will Wright, the famous American game designer who created a plethora of Sim titles. Perhaps his most revolutionary when it arrived, the Sims allowed players to create their own virtual persona, and control it from a birds-eye view.

The Sims takes real life, and turns it into a game of time management and accounting. The player controls every aspect of his character’s life, including when that “sim” will go to the bathroom. Players interact with computer controlled sims from around the neighborhood, and much of the game’s enjoyment is derived from how these situations turn out.

While the Sims is most certainly a game, it breaks the mold of normal gaming rules to provide an experience truly unlike anything that has come before it. From the mundane to the minuscule, every detail of life as we know it is recreated in digital form, and Will Wright has made these computer characters come to life with their own language and world in which to live. They interact, they socialize, they may even bother you from time to time with how often they need your help to complete the most basic of tasks, but spend enough time with one, and you’ll start to care about how they feel. It’s a strange concept for a game, but it’s one that fuels the “just one more minute” mantra, and keeps you playing all night long.

Like it or not, Will Wright is here to stay, and his wacky (see: brilliant) game design techniques are too. His games will only continue to become more complicated and exciting, and the world will continue to play them, because no matter how odd it is sometimes, the experience is strangely and powerfully compelling like no other game before it.

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Video game degrees: Will they actually help you get ahead in the games industry?

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

A game degree, like and degree won’t get you ahead or guarantee you a job. It won’t teach you everything you will need to know to do the job either. It will give you the basics. Everything else is up to you. Although a good school will have a decent career services to help you out. They may also offer free chances to take certification tests in various programs and programing languages.

It is also very unwise to believe the commercials programs. You are not going to be playing games for a living. Nor will you play games in school except to possibly dissect them later and write papers about the design aspects of the game you just played. Very few will finish the degree, and of those even fewer will get a job in the industry .

The real question is, will a game degree or any other degree help you more then the other? In all honestly I’d have to say no. When it comes down to it a degree means you have basic knowledge and the ability to stick something out for two to four years. Everything else is up to you, a good resume, a good portfolio, being able to prove you are a good investment and can do the job. If you have these things you will have a better chance then someone who doesn’t no matter what degree they have.

The good thing about a game design degree? You learn about the gaming industry , it’s history, current trends, current project management techniques. Although this may not help you get a job, if you do get a job at least you will know what to expect more then a computer science programing major who doesn’t know how the gaming industry works. Along with this is you get a taste of pretty much all the jobs out there. Your cretin program may focus more on one of them, mine focused on art and design, but we still got a taste of programing. Which I decided I liked and wanted to learn more of so I did so on my own. This is also something you are going to have to be willing to do, don’t expect the school to teach you everything, you will need to continue your education on your own sometimes to get ahead.

Now do I think when I graduate my degree is going to open doors for me? No, I don’t, but I don’t think any other degree I could have gotten would of opened doors for me. So my answer to this question is although a video game degree isn’t going to get you ahead in the industry.. neither is any other degree out there. It’s all a matter of how hard you work, and what skills you have.

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