14th November

                                                           Essay comparing Assassin’s Creed 3

 with Double Fine Adventure

 

Introduction

The games Assassins Creed 3 (AC3) and Double Fine Adventure (DFA) are both video games, however they are funded differently and have a lot of differences. Some of these differences are things like the way the games are published, who publishes them, the game design, who designs them, the way the game is marketed, how are they marketed, and the way the games are distributed, how are they distributed and we can make comparisons between the two and how successful each game will be with the differences that they have.

Publishing

Both of these games are published differently, for example Assassins Creed 3 (AC3) id published by Ubisoft which is an established publishing company, an advantage of using such a well known company for publishing is that because everyone knows the company, the games audience trusts that using Ubisoft, the game AC3 will be a success. However, using such a well known publisher can have a backfiring effect on the game, for example AC2 used Ubisoft as its publisher and i think it lost the AC franchise 52 million dollars even though the AC game sold 29 million units. Having a big name publisher can have other bad effects on the game for example the publisher decides the target audience for the game and also the genre of the game so the publisher is likely to choose a ‘trendy’ game genre in order to make money and this can take some of the originality out of the games being created. Also the audience of the game is just fed the finished version of the product and have no say in how the game is created or the storyline.  With Crowd Funding including the game Double Fine Adventure (DFA) the game creators have full control of the game so they can choose the genre of the game and what the target audience for the game is, and whilst the game is being created, the people who funded it are kept up to date on the website page via videos and blogs, the funders are also involved in the game and have a say in the storyline, characters etc. However, using crowd funding can have negative effects in that the idea for the game may not raise enough funds needed to create the game.



Design

The design for the two games is different also, with the two games having different genres in some respects but also being the same in some ways. For example, AC3 is a multi genre game consisting of most genres such as sandbox, action, adventure and fantasy. DFA has an adventure genre as it is a point and click game and both of these genres have been chosen by the creators and designers to suit their target audience. AC3, being the huge gaming franchise that it is, used 1,300 people to help design the game over the development period which although it would cost a lot more, makes AC3 a much more in depth and in detail game. AC3 is a 3D game which contrasts with the 2D point and click game of DFA. DFA used only 30 people to make the design for the game and even though that means the game will probably not be as in depth and detailed as AC3, it will have cost a lot less to make so both games have their advantages and disadvantages when designing their game, however even though it will have cost a lot more to do, AC3 will have a much better game design as it is 3D.

 


Marketing

 
With crowdfunding, DFA will not have to spend a lot of money at all to get people to be attracted to their product as they already have their audience of 87,142 people before the game has even been produced, also all of their marketing has been done on either Kickstarter or Youtube which has cost the game designers nothing. DFA can be confident that their game will be a success even though they are not paying anything for marketing because even though the designers asked for $400,000 to make the game, they received $9m in the first 9 hours. AC3 are using Ubisoft which will cost them a lot of money to do but it should pay off as it should appeal to lot of people. AC3 will be advertising on TV, radio and with posters etc. Which although it will cost a lot more than DFA cost of $0, it will bring in more money as more people will know about it and AC3 has already sold just over 3.5 million copies.


 Distribution

Both of the games are distributed differently in some ways, for example AC3 will be released in shops for people to buy or will be available for people to buy online, this will cost the designers of the game money to put their game in the shops. Because of this, AC3 will get more publicity so more people will probably want to buy it making the game designers more money. DFA is different because it will not be released in shops, instead it will be available to download or buy online and because to help make the game random people pledged money to make the game better, the people that pledged money will receive a reward for their help, for example if a person pledged $15 or more, they will receive the finished game free on PC, Mac, and Linux, or via Steam for PC and Mac, exclusive access to the Beta on Steam, access to the video series, and access the private discussion community so people have already got incentives to buy the game and these rewards go all the way up to $10,000 or more and the people that pledged this much money or more get to have lunch with Tim Schafer and receive all of the rewards between this amount of money and $15

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two games have so much difference to them even though they are both video games, AC3 is a big franchise with a lot of money so you would expect the franchise to make the designers a lot of money however the publishing, marketing and distribution will cost them a lot of money, especially using a big name publisher Ubisoft. DFA on the other hand, is not expected to be as much of a hit as AC3 but the fact that the designers of this game will save money on publishing, marketing and distribution means that the designers can focus on selling their products. However, even with the costs of marketing, publishing and distribution you would still expect AC3 to be a much more successful game than DFA because it is a well known franchise with expert game designers.

 

 

5th November 2012

Assassins Creed III development

Game Design- the game design has changed from the other games from the series because there is a different main character named Connor as oppose to Ezio. The storyline is basically the same as any other modern day hero game, Connor has to save the world which has been prophesied in the Revelations game. Connor is a half native, half british assassin in the 18th century which is more modern than the other games. The storyline is probably the games strongest point when we start with Connor getting accused of killing his own father, we go through Connor's life from being a scared young boy and turning into a fearsome assassin.

Game Engine- AnvilNext http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSM5B2Fz2jw

Gameplay- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZrklEy9ohQ

PUBLISHING

Target Audience - The target audience is 18+ due to the 18 rated certificate. However, in reality   

we know it is aimed at 12 - 40+ as Ubisoft know that parents will buy this game as a gift for christmas or birthdays for their sons who are under the age of 18. Though Ubisoft will not admit they aim at younger than 18.

Genre - Assassins Creed III is a multi-genre game unlike most other games. It's genre's are:

                                                                                                                    Sandbox

                                                                                                                    Beat em up

                                                                                                                    Platform

                                                                                                                    Adventure

                                                                                                                    3rd Person

                                                                                                                    Stealth

                                                                                                                    Puzzle/Strategy

This sort of multi-genre game play makes the game experience a lot more immersive and enjoyable. The mixture of genre's makes it less tedious and makes the gamer enjoy playing it more as it is not just a simple beat em up boring game anymore.

Narrative - Considering under 30 people created the narrative for this game it is extremely well done. 

Muskets, starving wolves, waist-high snowdrifts and a little something called the American Revolution are but a fraction of the perils Conor will face in the new world. But there is an even bigger challenge he will have to overcome, the shadow of Ezio Auditore, the beloved Italian assassin who terrorized Templars some 200 years before Connor took his first breath. Events throughout lead to him becoming an assassin and transform him into who of the most efficient killers at this side of the Atlantic. 

How do franchises establish and develop continuing sales figures ?

One of the ways companies such as ubisoft ensure their game will sell, is through the use of marketing. We now live in the 'digital age' as a consequence most adverts we see are on digital formats ie. TV or on the internet. However companies still use magazines and non-digital formats to get the message spread.

When a new game is released one of the first major glimpses we get of the game is a short cinematic style animation. This doesn't use any or much game play footage, as its not developed by this point, however it gives the viewer a taste if the narrative and what they'll be getting up to. For example the following link is to a trailer released by ubisoft regarding their latest release Assassins Creed 3. It contains a narrator who gives you an insight into who the character is and what he believes in. It also focuses heavily on the hand to hand combat, a main feature of the assassins creed franchise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32U_KOUuQ74&feature=fvwrel

Later on once the game has been developed further, companies will release actual game play footage in order to stir excitement in the gaming community. This can often be found online on sites such as YouTube  They again show the main features if the game that people who have bought previous copies love so dearly. Which in Assassins Creeds case is the hand to hand combat and the free running mixed with stealth and strategy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZrklEy9ohQ

This is an example of the kind of trailer that gets advertised on the television. it contains a mix of game play and animation edited together to show as many aspects of the game off as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6DnfH0Uc3I

However in this day and age its important not to forget about the other areas where games will be advertised. for example thousands of people buy and subscribe to gaming magazines every year, purely to read reviews and gain knowledge about up and coming releases. The creators of Assassins Creed 3 also exploited this area when advertising their new game. 

Distribution: Companies use many methods in order to get the game to the people. They Sell the games in bulk to stores such as GAME, Game-station  Amazon, HMV etc. These are the places where people will go in order to get their copy. Many copies are in fact shipped around the world to countries all over the map. And each establishment will then do their own advertising in order to shift their copies and make a profit.

Sales:
On March 30, 2012, Ubisoft stated that in the three weeks since the game's pre-order campaign began, numbers had already surpassed the total US pre-order numbers of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and exceeded 10 times more than the pre-orders Assassin's Creed: Revelations attracted in a comparable time frame. On October 25, 2012, Ubisoft announced that the game is the most pre-ordered game in the company's history, more than doubling pre-orders for Revelations, the previous record holder.
Assassin's Creed III was the best selling game in the United Kingdom in the week of its release, with the best sales of the series to date. It was the biggest launch in publisher Ubisoft's history and the second biggest launch of any game in the UK in 2012 (behind FIFA 13). It doubled the launch week sales of Assassin's Creed II, and beat 2011's Revelations by over 117,000 copies.
Ubisoft announced that sales for Assassin's Creed III in the first week were estimated to be 3.5 million, which represents a 100 percent year-over-year increase from Revelations (taken from wikipedia)

Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode features over 12 modes, one of which is Domination where players hold certain points on the map. You will be able to play as the British military and the mode is "run" by Abstergo, as with previous games. Game mechanics from the single player will be carried over to the multiplayer, therefore requiring players to utilise stealth and advance assassination techniques. Finally, female assassins will be included. Assassin's Creed III also features a new co-operative multiplayer mode called 'Wolf Pack'. The mode allows players to form teams of up to 4 people and work collectively to eliminate NPC assassination targets, known as 'Moles'. There are a total of 25 sequences, or 'waves' to complete, with each wave increasing in difficulty (taken from wikipedia)

After watching videos of the game on Youtube, I dont think I personally would enjoy the game because it seems a bit complicated and i play video games simply to chill out. However, for someone that enjoys the franchise it looks like it would be a very enjoyable game to play if you want to play the single player mode, after watching an online multiplayer game of domination it looks a bit boring, i'm not sure whether it is just that game mode or not but it didnt look very exciting as there were very few confrontations with enemies to kill.


Below are two pictures from the online multiplayer game modes:

25th October 2012

The Video Game Industry

Industry structure – The key businesses within the industry are publishing, development, distribution and hardware manufacturers (console makers Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft). The key issue to be aware of when looking at the industry is the complex interactions of the various companies. A company focused on one of these areas may also be active in others. Publishers often own all or part of a development or distribution company and the hardware manufacterers all act as publishers for their own 1st party products. This means that an independent development company seeking to do business with a publisher may actually be approaching the owner of one of their main competitors.
In addition the international nature of the industry means two publishers who compete in one territory can end up working together (one may distribute the others games) in another territory. Because of this it is very important to understand the existing global relationships when doing business within the games industry.

 

The 5 Most Important Computer Games Ever

5) Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare- i have chosen this game at number 5 because it was the first Call Of Duty game that really took off and that everyone had to have. Released in 2007, the game was available on all consoles such as Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii. The game recieved a score of 94% from Gamerankings and Metacritic making the game a big succes, it also became the best selling game worldwide for  2007, selling 7 million copies by January 19th and 13 million copies by May 2009.

4) Donkey Kong- This arcade game was released in 1981by Nintendo, the game is an early example of a platform game genre as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering a main character onto various platforms whilst dodging various objects. the 'jumpman' (since renamed mario) has to rescue a damsell in destress (since renamed pauline) from a giant ape named donkey kong, mario and donkey kong have become 2 of the most popular nintendo characters.

3) Street Fighter II- This game sold 200,000 copies and made the gross revenue the company made was 1.5 billion in 2 years. It was originally released in 1991 and is the sequal to an arcade street fighting game that was released in 1987. It ran on CP System Arcade Hardware. By 1994 the game had been played by at least 25 million Americans either at home or public arcades.

2) Space Invaders- This arcade game was released in 1978 and sold 360,000 hardware copies which made a gross revenue of 2.702 billion up to 1982. The game was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado and the aim of the game is to get through waves of enemies by shooting them down. When designing the game, the designer drew inspiration from popular media Star Wars, Breakout and War Of The Worlds.

1) Pacman- Released in 1980, this arcade game sold 400,000 hardware units causing a revenue of 3.5 billion up to 1999. Designed by Namco, the arcade game was first released in Japan on May 1980. Pacman ia often crdeited as the lanmark in video game history which makes it number one in my countdown of the top 5 most important computer games ever.

Upcomoming Video Game To Be Released

Call Of Duty Black Ops II

Ready to be released on the 13th November 2012, Black Ops II is the next game in a series consisisting of the highest demanded first person shooters. This game looks like is has focused on what was Black Ops biggest selling point, the Zombies, which to be fair is a good idea because it is what most people buy the game for. Treyarch look to have moved away from the original nazi zombies also, with the zombies just wearing standard rags. The storyline has been brought into consideration also, probably to cure peoples boredom after getting to round 30 and just killing themselves because there was nothing left to do, watching videos it look as though you complete some tasks in one area then hop on a bus to a different area to do more tasks which should keep people happy and keep them guessing as to what to do, also the fact that players can play 8 person zombies is an exciting new feature because although more players means more firepower, at the same time there might be such a thing as too many players to get in each others way or to hinder strategies.
         After watching the online multiplayer video, i can only really think of positives to it as it looks like the developers have thought of everything.... they have even included not using a primary weapon for the knifers out there. the new class layout gives us something to get our heads round and new gun attatchments means there are lots of variations to differenct Call Of Dutys. We even got a sneak peek at killstreaks which look to have more detail added with new killstreaks brought into the game. And before you ask, yes Treyarch have brought back the 'dive to prone' feature.

The Effect Of Changing Technology In The Game Industry

The obvious examples of changing technology are the Xbox Kinnect and the Playstation Move, and it looks like microsoft have had more success than sony in that department. The playstation move and xbox kinnect never really looked to take off because it meant doing something that most hardcore gamers arent used to doing, exercise, so microsoft and sony turned their attention to targetting the family market for their new products in hope for more success but i have to say i dont know any families that have purchased one so maybe new technology is not needed in the gaming world? maybe we dont need any new technology until it gets as advanced as to just thinking what to do so it does it on a games console, until then, i think gaming is as advanced as it could get.

14th October

The following is is my re-done worst paragraph on my recent essay about sexuality...

The director parts to show contrasts of the two sexualities for example at the start of the clip when the two women are stood together, the mirror that the women are looking into is very dirty which could connote the unclarity of maudes sexuality as she does not know if her feelings are a phase or if she has real feelings for the other woman. Also the different camera cuts throughout the clip fade into each other when Maude is on the screen whilst there are quick cuts whilst the man is on the screen, this connotes that Maude is very soft, calm and gentle whilst the heterosexual are very aggressive which shows the contrast. When Maude is painting the other woman, the point of view shot of Maude staring at her breasts connotes her desire to touch her but she cannot.

7th October 2012

Re-written essay on movie clip- Spartacus


There is a clear divide between the upper class and lower class even at the beginning of the scene, for example, the roman guards are dressed well whilst the poor men are dressed in rags. The only person that talks through the beginning of the scene is the soldier, could this mean that the poor feel like they don't have the right to speak? The poor men are all in a single file whilst being shepherded into the 'cage' which is implying that the poor men are dangerous when in face they are not. Also the fact that they are forced into the cage shows that they are treat like animals. The scene then goes on to the upper class people, and it shows them sat in relaxed positions whilst one of the men is playing with his jewellery which was a sign of how much money you had whereas the poor men had nothing which shows the divide between the two classes. The camera shot of the cage door opens shows just how the divide between the classes works, the poor men were in the cage in rags, the soldiers were stood higher than them from a low angle shot showing they are more important than the lower class while the upper class are all at the top of the screen in relaxed positions showing their importance. During the time they are fighting, the fighters have a lot of exposed flesh which shows their vulnerability of being lower class. The first death is built up with a massive climax of music such as drums and trombones, and when the man gets killed the climax has been and gone, a lot of tension has ended and the upper class just clap politely at the end which shows that they do not care about the lower class as they are treat as animals and objects. The protagonist in the scene has a shit of him through the black mans net which shows his vulnerability and the fact he is trapped. The two men are fighting for their lives whilst the upper class are talking amongst themselves which shows how they don't care about the lower class. During the second fight, the black man is shown to have more power over the protagonist in the fight as he has a bigger weapon, also the black man has a trident and a net which were typical fishing tools of that time which was a stereotypical poor mans job so the weapons connote the lower class lifestyle.when the black man wins the fight but rebels, the upper class shout at him to kill the protagonist, this connotes that the upper class expected the lower class to do everything they say. As the black man is climbing up the wall it is almost as if he is climbing through the social classes to get to the upper class however he is stopped as he is killed and to tie it up, the rich man stabs the black man with a dagger which backs up the assumption that we don't like the upper class.
The camera shots that are used in the scene show the divide between rich and poor because they show the poor through a different view, for example at the beginning the men are shown from a shot through a cage which connotes their helplessness and vulnerability. The divide between the two classes is shown when the camera cuts from the four poor people to the four rich people, we then can see the difference in clothes and facial expressions. Throughout the scene the camera is shown to stay with the protagonist a lot so we know who he is and what situation he is in, and also to show the fact he is lower class and how he is treat. We also see a shot through the eyes of the protagonist to show that he is the main person we are focusing on. There is a high angle shot from the rich looking down on the arena to show that the men in the arena are inferior to the rich people watching them fight, we are also always looking up at the rich, or down from the riches point of view so we understand their importance.
The sound in the scene also gives us clues to the status of the people involved, at the beginning the men are walking to the cage and we hear low trumpets which can signify war or loneliness which is how the four men would be feeling at the time- lonely. The music builds tension in the fights which connotes the fight that the lower class people have to go through to survive. There is also a change in music genre when we cut to the upper class, it becomes more of a melody rather than a tension builder.
The editing has been done to make the poor seem inferior for example they are always shot from high angle shots to make them seem less important and they have not been given decent clothing to wear as they 'do not matter'

3rd October

This is after we have finished our preliminary, we received constructive criticism from the other groups and the only real point that was put across was our obvious continuity error which we already knew about which in our eyes is a great success. One thing that sir did pick up on is that in our middle scene of Sav sitting at the table, our camera shot was a bit long so in the future we will aim to add more variety of shots in. I think we did 90% of things well as it all flowed, the music fit and I think our storyline worked well so we will also look to do a lot of things the same as we considered it to be a great success

26th september preliminary exercise

Much like the television show waterloo road, our preliminary exercise  is based around the lives of a family and the relationship between a father and his son. For example when tom finds out the josh has been doing drugs, he gets VERY angry. There is the same kind of theme in our scene because the father is very annoyed at his son because he has been doing very badly at school. the possible only difference between our scene and a waterloo road episode is the fact that the father in our scene has more of a higher paying job than being a teacher.