Game Presentation Reflection
Overall I believe that our presentation went pretty well. I think that we explained every aspect of the game to the best of our abilities; however, there were a few things that I had trouble trying to get across to the audience in a way that they could best understand.
It was hard to explain the mechanics of the game in a way that would make the game seem like it was fun. I felt as though it was a bad idea trying to explain the way the game works through comparison of other games. If I say, this game works a lot like the Sims, then people will say, “Okay, then what makes your game any different than the sims, an already successful franchise, and why should I think of buying it instead of the Sims?” The challenge is separating your work from so many other games. Also, when your not totally sure on how you want the game to work yourself, it gets difficult to explain it other people.
Another thing I felt was difficult was to explain the levels. Our game doesn’t really have levels, it’s more of a sandbox kind of game where you play as a character and they grow individually through the whole world of the game. It’s not so much moving from level 1 to level 2 or level 3 and so on; however, its a more objective oriented system. Its difficult to explain how that works without sounding like you are confused yourself.
- A strong point of our presentation was that I feel like we had a solid idea which gave us a lot to work with. Without a great idea it’s tough for things to blossom and form in a smooth way. If we had more time than a week we could have added so much more to our game just because of its nature. I believed we portrayed our idea very well and what our reasoning was behind making things the way they were and why we made certain decisions. Games are tricky when it comes to originality because there are so many out there. You can only play so many first person shooters before they all start to blend together. I think we did a pretty good job of showing how our game would be a little bit different than your average game.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Super Hero Critque
Alex Bollinger Superhero/Villain Critique
Hey alex, I’m going to critique your Hero and Villain combo. First off, I hate you for having such a good animation, second off I envy you for having such a good animation. Did I mention that your animation is good? Well I liked your animation. Right away I could tell that Thunder Thighs was the villain due to the contrast in brightness between the two characters. Your character was much darker in color that T-storm. However, you both seemed to use a lot of the same movement between your super powered people. Being able to fly.......sort of. One thing that I think could have been better as a whole though was to maybe provide less of an affinity between the names of the heroes themselves. It could get kind of confusing figuring out if Thunder Thighs or T-Storm is the good guy, or the bad guy.
Adam Cesarz Superhero/Villain Critique
Hey Adam, first off I would like to say that I thought the idea of a hipster super hero was pretty cool. Hipster man though seems to be a rather unimpressive super hero though. He seems unmotivated and slow and rather bland. But, that provides a good contrast with his counter part of a villain Brandy who seems to be more up-beat and fast and totally on top of things. Also, I like how it was kind of like Hipsters vs. Corporate in this big fight for.....I don’t really know. So there was a good difference in movement between the two characters. I would have chosen a more obscure color for hipster mans costume though......get what I’m saying?
Chris Faust Superhero/Villain Critique
Chris, I liked your villain a lot. I think you had a very interesting idea. You can tell right away by the shadow of the drawing that he does not look like a dude you want to mess with. You did a very good job using color to make him seem like an aggressive villain. I also really enjoyed your animation. I think it was cool giving him a skateboard to move around rather than just being the stereotypical flying dude or super speed guy. Your villain just looks mean, which is a good think and I’m pretty sure thats what you were going for. Really good job Chris.
Freak Factor Response
The article can be found here!
This article puts weakness and utilizing it into a different kind of light. Rendell says that our weaknesses are what make us unique and that we shouldn’t even bother trying to fix them. He believes we should just focus on our strengths.
Personally I disagree with this mind set. I feel as though the only way to grow creatively is to find out what your weaknesses are and not necessarily focus on them but work on them and make them less of a weakness. Creatively, I am horrible at drawing; however, that doesn’t mean I should just say screw it and not work on it and only do what I’m good at. You cannot grow only doing things you are good at.
With that being said I will analyze 3 of his 9 suggestions for overcoming weakness.
- Forget it : Don’t try to fix your weaknesses
As I mentioned earlier I totally disagree with this statement. If I’m an artist, and I’m bad at shading, I’m not going to sit there and deal with it as Rendell suggests, I would recognize it as a weakness and work on it and try to improve. If a basketball player cannot shoot free throws, they aren’t going to say, “No, coach I’m bad at free throws I’m just going to shoot 3’s during practice since I am already good at those.” You need to work on your weaknesses and turn them into strengths. If everyone followed by this philosophy, where would the drive to become better come from? This particular reason just struck me as totally and completely wrong. I do not think people should follow this as a way to deal with weaknesses.
- Foundation: Build on your strengths
Strengths are very important as well as weaknesses. Strengths need to continuously be worked on or else those strengths could turn into a weakness. If you stop working on things that you are good at you are doing yourself a disservice. That’s why you need to find a balance between working on strengths as well as weakness. Rendell used a good quote, “If you don’t use it, you lose it” which I believe in.
- What’s your problem?
I agree with half of this suggestion. In the first part it talks about defining your weaknesses which is very important. If you don’t know what your weaknesses are how can you improve upon them? It talks about how in job interviews they will ask about your weaknesses which is completely valid. If someone is applying for an accounting job but one of their weaknesses is math, thats probably a good thing to know. In the second part however he talks about how this way of thinking produces well-rounded people. He questions if this is how things should be though. I see nothing wrong with producing well-rounded people. I would rather be good at a lot of things then great at just a few. I think being well-rounded is important.
Joke Shorts Reflection
Our joke was one of the classic, “So a guy walks into a bar,” scenario. We had two very different approaches to how we had to portray the joke though. Our requirements were that we could not use an expensive camera, and no original audio from what we shot could be used in the final product. For the first joke video, we decided to make it like a silent film. That way, we didn’t have to worry about speaking in the video really and it gave the video a pretty cool effect. In the silent film we used a good deal of lines to lead the viewers eye to the main character of the joke. There was also a great deal of rhythm used as shown by the bottles all in a row behind the bar.
In the second joke video, we wen’t for more of a modern style such as how a comedy show such as “The Office” would be shot. This is one provided a good contrast from the first because there is a lot more color and there are actual lines being spoken. So we had to dub the voices or use voice overs in the editing process in order to meet the requirements. In the project there was a lot more depth and movement going on in the shots. I personally liked shooting the second one better, as well as I think it turned out better.
Throughout the joke as a whole tension is being built through an embarrassing situation. You almost don’t even get the release because the situation just starts from an already awkward one, to an even higher level of awkwardness. Overall I think the joke videos turned out very well. Two different ways of showing the same joke can be a little bit harder than it may seem at first.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
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