Investigation

 This week I really wanted explore the process of when creators are brainstorming game ideas. 

I watched a video on how Midway Studios came up with the idea of Mortal Kombat. A main inspiration was Karate Champ. Here's an image of what the game looks like.

Ed Boone and John Tobius along with a couple friends "snuck into" Midway Studios to film a small pitch for the video game doing martial arts moves and talked about Chinese ninjas and mysterious powers that the characters would have. John Tobius wanted to create something that was a mashup of all his childhood influences. He was a Martial Arts movie Junky.  Big Trouble in Little China had some very obvious influences. They wanted to have the game fronted by Van Damme but that obviously didn't work out for them. Management was at a loss because they thought for sure it wouldn't sell due to the lack of success with fighting games at the time. But in 1991, Street Fighter 2 came out and it was an absolute hit; Thus leading Midway Studios to have some faith for the game and the rest is history. This is what the first installment of Mortal Kombat looks like. 

This week I was still crammed with lots of make up work so I honestly only did this but doing this was really fun and it was cool to finally learn how my favorite game was first created. 

Investigation Blog Post 3

 This investigation is dedicated to the process game developers go through while creating games. 

Basically, there is 3 steps to development. Step one, Pre-Production. Step two, Production. And step three, Post-Production.

Pre-Production is mapping out what you want to do for the game. Essentially you're figuring out characters, the storyline and creating concept art. This is an example of what concept artists will sketch out prior to starting production. 

Production: The story is refined, assets (characters, creatures, props and environments) are created, the rules of play are set, levels and worlds are built, code is written, and so much more! Designers model characters and the atmosphere of the environment. Here's an example of a designer creating environmental models! 

Post Production: This the easiest step and usually the most exciting step. During Post Production, editors go through everything to make sure it’s correct and exactly what everyone wanted. After everything, you test the game to make sure it works and this is when early gameplay is released for the public to view.

What was done this week: Again, I was without any access to school related resources so all I did was research the steps of game development and it turns out that it is a lot harder and time consuming than I thought it would be. 

Investigation Blog Post 2

 This week I wanted to keep it simple but also, I wanted to analyze Fallout. Specifically, Fallout 76. Fallout 76 is a perfect example of Invention and Fantasy. It's an open world multiplayer based game where you create weapons and build bases. It perfectly depicts what an Invention and Fantasy game should look and play like. The invention part of it is building your base's and also your weapons that you create. The fantasy part of it is the open world in a time period unlike any we as humans have seen before. 

This is what the workbenches look like. They are scattered around the map and this is where you create new weapons!

 

This is what a base could look like! You as the player have full control of what you build and you can completely customize what your base looks like!

Work log: 

I couldn't do much due to not having access to any of my accounts for school but what I did this week was watched some people making weapons on the game and also watched one guy make this MASSIVE base that was really cool!

Investigation Blog Post

 I looked over a few games this week and tried to focus on investigating what the designers of the background do to more immerse you into the gameplay of Invention and Fantasy games. I noticed that a big part of games is the immense attention to the background of actual gameplay. One of the best examples of what I’m talking about is yet again God of War. The game itself is cool but what really makes it admirable is the background and scenery. 

The game is literally beautiful at every area you arrive in. This is what really pulls players in to enjoy the game as a whole. You can tell the developers of this game spent a lot of time with just the scenery and it helped the game gain popularity. When I watched people’s play through, the first thing they say about the game is that it’s beautiful. 

Monday: Watched half a full play through of God of War.

Tuesday: Watched the 2nd half of the play through.

Thursday: Personally played Mortal Kombat 11 and analyzed the scenery of the stages.

Friday: Watched gameplay of Ghost of Tsushima (Honestly really beautiful and I highly suggest it)