NEXT-GEN Nescot week 13 - Game reviews (2)

during week 13 - we were tasked with creating two reviews of different games, below are my reviews.

Rainbow Six Siege:

Rainbow six siege is a deeply engrossing first person tactical shooter that not only encourages teamwork and communication but makes it necessary and needed to win. Rainbow six is primarily online with player vs player and player vs AI. Rainbow sixes games consist of two teams of five players, one team is the attacking team who needs to complete an objective and the other is a defending team who needs to defend the objective. The game is won once the set objective is secured (completed) or if the defending or attacking team is eliminated, there are no re-spawns in rainbow six which can lead to interesting games where there is a sense of tactical movement to minimize the number of casualties suffered by your team.

Rainbow six has a wide variety of maps that are all destructible, this allows for the attacking team to chose their entry points at where-ever they may choose while the defenders need to reinforce walls and set traps for the attacking team to fall into, this allows freedom of any tactical or loud entry whitest allowing the defenders to block entrances, slow the attackers and make it easier to counter the attackers.

In Rainbow six you can kill both the enemy and your teammates (friendly fire), where you hit your enemy changes the amount of damage you do, for example; head-shots kill instantly, leg shots do less damage but put people into a down but not out state instead of killing them, arms do less damage but kill them instead of downing them and shooting their chest does normal damage. This means it very easy to die in Rainbow six.

Rainbow six siege also has a large cast of incredibly balanced, diverse and unique characters with special abilities that either consist of traps, blockades or ways of countering or breaching the opposing teams defenses. Characters in Rainbow six can be customized as well by unlocking outfits in the operators load-out. Selecting a character also denies your teammates from picking that character, this stops multiple people being the same character.

Rainbow six allows for endless replay-ability as you never know how a game will be played out and there is a constant supply of updates and new content. Also Rainbow six is stylized in a realistic tone, this shows the more serious setting of the game and allows for more realistic immersion.

Despite all of these great points, Rainbow six siege can be impenetrable to newcomers due to the large amount of experienced players and toxicity towards lower level players and trolls can ruin matches with little penalty, this can be caused by abusing the "vote kick player" function and abusing the ability to kill teammates, even though you can be suspended for thirty minutes, however doesn't increase in time very often.

Over all I believe that Rainbow six siege is an amazing game and I would recommend you buy it, but be aware of the downsides and annoyances withing the game and its community.


Over-watch

Over-watch is an exhilarating fast-paced first person shooter that encourages objective based play and teamwork to win matches. Over-watch is mostly set online with a multitude of tactical game-modes that have a set time and score before the game finishes, allowing the players to enjoy intense battles and thrilling overtime comebacks. Also over-watch urges much more towards despite also having a player vs AI setting.

Over-watch is stylized in a more cartoon-like appearance to most other first person shooters, this gives a light hearted and joking atmosphere that can be compared with Team-fortress 2. However, this can be considered to be a complete opposite of Rainbow six siege's darker and more realistic atmosphere.

Over-watch currently has a total of twenty one unique and interesting characters with their diverse appearances origins and personalities that can all be shown in their dialog and emotes (actions/animations that are activated purposely by the player), despite the fact that they are grouped into four character types. Each of the characters are completely different, for example "Junk-rat" and "Bastion" are classed as defenders, however, "Bastion" has the ability to transform into a mini-gun and shoot the enemy team from a fixed position while "Junk-rat" arches explosives over short or long distances in order to damage or scare away (would be) attackers.

In Over-watch no characters are made for only one purpose which allows flexibility while playing by using he characters abilities and specials in multiple different ways, similarly to how the rainbow six siege operators can be used to further the teams progress or help shape situations in your favor and win the match.

Unfortunately, in Over-watch most maps are built in a way that only allows for one mode of play which means that there is notably less variety than other games such as rainbow six siege, despite this is made up for in the hilarious and unique dialog.

Over-Watch also has a loot-box system similar to rainbow six in which they give you multiple randomized items that can be sprays, emotes or skins. this also comes with a multitude of easy and quick ways of unlocking them, however over-watch, unlike rainbow six, also gives the option to pay for loot-boxes with real money.

Also unlike rainbow six, Over-watch allows players to create custom servers with their own sets of rules, this allows players to create games with their friends and create miniature game-modes that might not pre-exist.

Over all I believe that Over-watch is a great game with a large amount of options of play and customization despite its limited modes.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 12 - Animation (kick)

During week 13, we were tasked in teams to animate a word acting out the action that it says. For the task I was paired with James.

To create this small animation, we used hand drawn cut-outs and positioned them underneath a camera. I drew the different letters and actions of the "i" using a H.B pencil whitest often showing and asking James about desired designs and designs I had made. I also gave the "i" an eye to allow it to have a sense of emotion. 

James then volunteered to do the positioning and editing because most of the drawings I made were not used in the final creation. Firstly, James attempted to use adobe-Fireworks to make the animation, however the blog website I use did not allow the GIF to be shown due to the large file size and therefore used Adobe-Animate to create the GIF.

In order to do this, James lowered the size of each of the images and reduced the amount of time each image would appear on screen.

Unlike other animations on my blog, this animation did not need to be tracked because all the frames were already created after taking the images and only needed to be placed in order.

(Animation that was created can be seen below, sorry for the flash effect in the frames)

Over all I believe that we did well on this assignment because me and James worked well together in a group with good co-ordination to produce our final image. However, if I could re-do this assignment I would re-take the images for the GIF to get rid of the flashing effect of the lighting and to increase the number of frames to make it move more smoothly.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 13 - Walking Animation

During week 13 we were tasked with animating a running/walking man move across the screen.

To create this small animation, I used the program Adobe Animate. I used this to position and edit the animation by using the pen tool to angle and draw the ark of each leg and arm stride. Once I was done I created another layer to hold the body and another for the head.

To create the head, I used the sphere tool whilst shift-clicking to make the created object symmetrical. Afterwards, I began creating the body by using the square tool and painting over it to make the body look more smooth.

Then I began making a large amount of key-frames holding copies of the head and body at different positions.

Underneath each foot I created small shadows to show the ground underneath the moving character.

Once again the way I tracked the previous placements of the character was by using the 'onion' feature which allowed me to see what came before that frame (in blue) and what came after (if it was there it would be shown in green).

(Animation I created can be seen below)

Over all I believe that I did well on this assignment because I think that the animation I made flows well and realistically runs. However, if I could re-do this assignment I would make the legs of the character thinner because the size of them is more eye catching than the arms or upper body.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 12 - Animation (bouncing ball)

To create this small animation, I used the program Adobe Animate. I used this to position and edit the animation by, firstly, creating an archway using the pen tool to angle and draw the steepness or shallowness of the arches. Once I was done with this I decided to create another layer to hold the ball and its movements.

To create the ball, I used the sphere tool whilst shift-clicking to make the created object symmetrical. Afterwards, I began creating a large amount of key-frames holding copies of the sphere at different positions. When the ball would be expressed as falling fast I would distort the sphere into an elongated shape for a brief second to make the frames blend better together.

Also, whenever the ball hit the floor I would flatten the ball to emphasize the landing and launching of the ball.

The way I tracked the previous placements of the ball was by using the 'onion' feature which allowed me to see what came before that frame (in blue) and what came after (if it was there it would be shown in green).

(Animation I created can be seen below)

Over all I believe that I did well on this assignment because I think that the animation I made is rather smooth and flows well. However, if I could re-do this assignment I would make the animation slower by using more frames and I would make the ball roll towards the end of the page.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 12 - Essay: game buyer/ player types (500 words)

Within Gamer psychology there is what is known as "The Four Bartle Types" (The Bartle taxonomy of player types classifying video-game players (Gamers) based on a 1996 article made by Richard Bartle which references their preferred actions within a game).

These four Bartle types are referenced as:

Killers: The players that prefer to interfere with the functioning of the game world or play with the experiences of other players

Achievers: (actively or inactively) Attempt to accumulate status tokens (achievements) by beating rule-based challenges the game world presents.

Explorers: Discover (or control) the systems governing the operation of the game world, frequently attempt to find everything the game world has to offer or differentiate from the story of the game world and continue on their own path.

Socialisers: Form relationships with other players throughout encounters within or outside of the game world's story.

Personally, I believe that I fall under a mix of the killer, socialiser and explorer categories because I like to play exploratory (open world) games while choosing my own path within the game. Games that I like to play in this category include (but are not limited to): Skyrim, Oblivion, Middle Earth and many more.
I also play lots of first person shooters such as Rainbow Six Siege, Battlefield and Call of Duty which most likely would fall under the "killer" category as-well.
The reason I also believe that I fit within the socialiser category is that I play lots of games with friends and make friends with others online whilst doing so.

Alongside the four Bartle types, there is another system to determine player/ buyer types, This is called "The Four Keirsey Temperaments".

These Temperaments include:

Artisan: (Sensing + Perceiving): these player/ buyer types tend to play realistic (or realistically in) games while using tactical and manipulative (of things or people) ways to win or advance. These players can also be described as; pragmatic, impulsive, action-focused and sensation-seeking.

Guardian: (Sensing + Judging): these player/ buyer types usually play practically and logistically, while also trying to be organized within the game. These players can be described as: hierarchical, detail-oriented, possessive, process-focused, security-seeking as-well.

Rational: (Intuition + Thinking): these player/ buyer types often play in innovative, strategic and logical ways. These these players can also be described as: scientific/technological, future-oriented, result-focused, knowledge-seeking.

Idealist: (Intuition + Feeling): these player/ buyer types play imaginatively while using diplomatic approaches. These these players can be described as: emotional, relationship-oriented, dramatic, person-focused, identity-seeking as well.

These two separate types of defining player and buyer types interconnect with each-other to determine the genres that the different sets of player types most likely want to play. 

For example: 

A killer/artisan player type would most likely want the power to be free to act at will on other people or things within the game.

An achiever/guardian player type would want the security of possessions obtained by following the game rules.

An explorer/rational player type would want the satisfaction of understanding how things work and to have the ability to explore a larger world.

A socialiser/idealist would want people to have the ability to cooperate toward a goal.

Below is a diagram showing the different player/buyer types

taken from: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6474/personality_and_play_styles_a_.php?print=1

Genre types compared to player types.

Genres	Examples	Core Player types
FPS	Call of Duty	Killer, Achiever
CRPG	Fallout 1/2	Achiever, Explorer
FPS-CRPG	BioShock	Achiever, Explorer, Killer
Open-world CRPG	The Elder Scrolls (skyrim)	Achiever, Explorer
MMORPG	World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Guild Wars	Achiever, Explorer, Socialiser
MMOG	Unreal Tournament, Team Fortress 1/2 (any FPS multiplayer mode)	Killer, Achiever
Adventure	King's Quest	Socialiser, Explorer
Action	Tomb Raider, Uncharted	Killer, Achiever
Survival-Horror	Resident Evil, Dead Space, Amnesia	Killer, Achiever
Turn-based Strategy	Civilization	Explorer
Physics Puzzler	Half-Life 1/2, Portal 1/2	Killer, Explorer
Real-time Strategy	Age of Empires	Achiever, Killer
Flight Simulator	Falcon 4.0, Microsoft Flight Simulator X	Killer, Explorer
Space Shooter	Wing Commander	Achiever, Killer
Music	Rock Band, Guitar Hero	Killer, Socialiser
Simulation	SimCity, Railroad Tycoon	Explorer
Social	FarmVille	Socialiser, Achiever
Online Gambling	Blackjack, Texas Hold-Em Poker	Killer, Achiever

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 9 - Rule of thirds (Re-Upload)

During week 9 we were tasked with taking pictures around the college grounds using the photographic technique of the rule of thirds.
The rule of thirds is the spacing, alignment and object placement in an image. This is applied by adding guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing features in the image to flow form one section to the next.

For my first image, I decided to align it so that your attention can be drawn to either side. There are eye-catching objects on both sides, allowing the viewers eyes to become focused on different objects depending on where your eyes are most commonly drawn too. For example; the pole on the left or the wooden outline of the greenhouse on the right. The first image also contains a lot more nature than most of the others and has a much more open feel.

Similarly to the first image, most of the images I have taken can draw the viewer to ether side. The second image in particular can draw you to the cars and possibly the pedestrians walking down the road. Also the second image, opposite to the first, has a much more mechanized and modern setting. If I could re-do this assignment, for this image I would move slightly towards the left as taking an image from that angle would reduce the risk of photoing the number-plates on the cars.

Once again, the third image also can draw the viewers attention to both sides with trees and nature on the right and the large, metallic buildings on the left. Image number 3 also has a very simplistic design that can be taken in a meterphorical way as if the metallic modern world is fighting against the natural and plantlike world. If I could re-do this assignment I would move further forward for this image because the top left was obstructed by the roof.

The forth image mainly draws the viewers eyes towards the left side due to the higher amount of objects on that side. Similarly towards the second image, this image is more modern and and mainly consists of a large building. If I could re-do this project I would have improved upon this image by showing more towards the right as to not single out one specific area of attention to allow the viewer to lock on to something that catches their eyes anywhere on the image.

Finally, the fifth image allows the viewer to be drawn to both sides because of the consistent amount of objects on either side (including but not limited to the buildings and the far back trees and shrubbery). Similarly to the third image, this image can be taken in a metaphorical way with the buildings surrounding the viewer and the distant sight of nature, possibly showing the fight of modernization and nature. If I could re-do the assignment I would have chosen a cleaner window to take the image out of.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 11 - Animation (SCP Special by 'Lord Bung')

(Disclaimer: this blog post is to review an animation that I enjoy, therefore none of the images are my own designs and I encourage you to go see the original artist. Also the song shown in the video is 'In the Pines' by Danny Farrant.)

Animation used:
Confinement Special - In the Pines (an SCP Animation) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Md9qwWQBI

SCP-217 (http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-217)

This animation is made by the youtuber "Lord Bung" who specialises in creating animations with one of their series being about the "SCP Foundation." The SCP Foundation is a fake government website that is considerd a wiki page with an insane amount of mythical, dangerous and rather weird monsters. Therefore the animaions of this website are often horror based.
This episode in particuar is a special episode, detailing many of the different SCPs on the website, such as SCP-217 as seen on the left. They do this while, at the same time, acting in beat with the song ('In the Pines') in the background.

SCP-079 (http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-079)

The large amount of short animations in this episode are all incredibly detailed, weird and dark in their design and imagery. It is set up in the minor introduction to the episode before showing a total of 28 SCPs throughout the video. Using fluid and smooth animation, it portrays a sense of realism and movement which makes the viewer feel imersed within the scenes. This adds to the horror filled atmosphere and giving a growing curiosity towards what the backstories are to the SCPs. This encourages the viewer to read from the SCP wiki themselves.

SCP-3560 (http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3560)

As the video progresses it slowly gets more weird and sinister to draw the viewer in, while simultaniously staying true to the original sources of the SCPs within the video. They do this by shortly showing imagery that is detailed or hinted towards by the SCP wiki. Also because of the afore mentioned encouragment to read the SCP wiki and the increasing intrigue as the animation progresses, the creator of the animation left links to the original sources in the description of their video.
Just like the creator of the animation, I too encourage you to check out the Scp Wiki (http://www.scp-wiki.net/) as they have many interesting creatures and written (fake) events.