Digital Gaming Marketplace

After a discussion with a tutor, he highlighted an important factor of where the sales of games has already began to go which is in the form of digital gaming downloads and streaming. The process is simple, you just access the online store, enter your details and download the game which is then ready to play. So why is it that we still buy our games in there raw boxed form? Well my opinion is that there are so many disadvantages of digital downloads. One is that they seem so much more expensive than a boxed game which seems odd to me, another is fact that you can't swap a game with a friend which has always been part of the gaming culture that I have grew up in and the last fact is that you don't actually own a physical object, which I feel is a big part of our materialistic world and culture that we live in.

One thing that hasn't changed, is the fact that there is some form of front cover artwork which is there to catch the buyers attention and stand out of the crowd so either way, the telling a story on a box idea will still be an important part of this project.

Playstation Store & Xbox Marketplace

This could be another potential route for me to present my final work by the means of an online store, but the down side is the lack of extras that would be missing which would normally come with a special edition package.

Digital Download Cards

Another alternative could be the way Nintendo sell some of their games, which are games that are bought like gift cards. They come stuck to a cardboard packaging and have a code on the card which can be entered on their online store which will then be saved to the actual console. The major bonus of these cards and the online stores is the fact of there recycling benefits which is an important factor to consider in the world we live in today.

So what have I gained from this? Well it kind of goes against what my project is all about, it basically tells me that boxed gaming packaging could well be a distant memory but will it disappear altogether? Yes and no, I do believe the generic boxed games will eventually disappear of our shelves in the near future but I do believe that there will still be a market for special collectors editions for as long as they sell. For this reason I am still going ahead with a physical object but maybe I could include the game as a digital down load card instead?

Gaming Culture "Japanese Gaming"

In this part of my research, I have started to focus on the games that have been made by Japan. I want to pick out the key elements that make them look distinctly Japanese which means how there culture and style has informed their design.

Dragon Quest VIII  by Square Enix

www.dragonquest8.com

The first out of this categories is a colourful game known as Dragon Quest which is a hugely popular role playing game within the Japanese gaming culture. I say this because I remember reading an article about vast amounts of Japanese business men booking time off work to play it! So what makes this a Japanese game? Well the first clue is the style of the game, it clearly been drawn from Manga (can be translated as humorous pictures) which became more and more popular when laws prohibiting the publication of the type of content was a lifted through the 20th century.

Title Unknown 1950s Manga

dirtcheapmag.wordpress.com

As you can see from the two manga images below, the resemblance is very similar in terms of style with the games style. The Characters are eccentric with wide eyes and wacky clothing, the colours are vibrant and bold and if you look further into manga comics the settings are as eccentric as the characters are!

Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo

www.manga.com

As you can see the from the images below with the ones from above, they both share a distinct resemblance in their style but of there is one key difference, movement.

As with all games, there has to be movement and in this case the developer has captured this traditional manga style look with a technique called cel shaded which means to give a 3D object (or animation in this case) a hand drawn cartoon like appearance. If you look closely, you can make out a black outline which would be seen in most comic, manga or cartoon styles.

Zelda "The Wind Walker"

Here is another example of a Japanese game which has been cel shaded in a more simpler manner. There seems to be more and on a 3D form which still some how looks 2D.

The Prince of Persia

Another cel shaded game but this time form a western developer "Ubisoft". This cel shaded game has gone for a highly detailed look which looks stunning in stills as much as it does in movement. 

What is interesting is the fact of how this links to some of the box art I have looked at. The western games seemed to go for a highly rendered look with the eastern going for a more simpler look. Another piece of information that I found is which games received the highest review score. The simple Japanese games scored highly across the board whilst the western scored low. What this tells me is that the aesthetics of the game don't make a difference if the mechanics of the game are shallow.

Task

Although I can't actually make a cel shaded character or setting using the normal 3D rendering technique but,  I can imitate it using the software and drawing skills I have on hand. I think I will focus on a simple character and try to stylise it to aim it a Japanese audience.

The Autoworld Toy Appeal 2014

This weeks event that I have been focused on is all about Christmas. I was tasked to create a video to promote the company as well as give out a nice Christmas message. We wanted it to tie in and promote the recent Toy Appeal which involves the local public donating presents, which would then be passed on to yen local charities across Derbyshire.

These key words such as "local" and "Toys" fed in to the video concept. We narrowed it down to an idea of Santa collecting toys from around Derbyshire driving an actual present. The story board was designed to shoot around areas which where know to the general public like the Peal Monument, or town hall.

As a result the video has become quite popular currently reaching the number of 612 views on Facebook which is good. Another side to this story is one of the business side of this project. although the objective is to promote the Appeal, It also doubles up as a promotion for the business. I shows a caring side of the company, it shouts out the name, where we are and although it doesn't have any sales material in it, it could well plant Autoworld in the public minds which may benefit the company down the line.

The Autoworld Toy Appeal Video 

Gaming Cultures "Box Art Battles"

In this post I have been looking into a selection of gaming box art with a difference, the difference being that each of the VS images below are different countries representation of the same game. I thought it would be a good start to judge them of there content to see if there are any key similarities which could aid me in my project.

Uncharted Golden Abyss

The first thing that springs to mind is the title. In the USA version the title is at the top of the box whilst the Japanese version is along the bottom, I'm not quite sure this is like that but it's question that will need answering in a later post. Another key focus that I've noticed is the USA version seems to be more violent, I suppose this could be down to Americas gun culture and thirst for action in games. The Japanese cover seems to more tranquil with a more emphasis on the environment. The Japanese cover seems to be more rich in colour as well.

Dead Island

Once again, the title is at the very top on the USA box whilst the other isn't. The key thing that strikes me is how simple in style the Japanese version is over the American. The former has a limited pallet silhouette look to it whilst the latter is a highly rendered, busy looking piece.

Gears of War

The more and more I look at these differences, the more I am noticing how more violent the USA art work are. Maybe violent isn't the word but a more focus on action and weapons. Even the colourful Kirby's Adventure has an emphasise on a weapon, the weapon actually seems to be the focus as it's the biggest object on the box which kind of detracts from the main character.

Final Fantasy 13

Another key similarity that I'm noticing between the USA & Japanese cultures are within the styles. USA seem to go with a more polished, highly rendered look which can be seen within this piece below, I must admit I prefer the simple Japanese look.

So what have I learnt from this post? Well I the first thing that I have noticed is that the composition of the title seems to have a significance, why that is I can not say but is a question that will need answering. I also notice the how America seem to create a much more busy box art over the simplicity of the Japanese and European box's. USA also seem to be much more violent in terms of weaponry been brandished more which I believe is to do with there culture. This seems to have brought more questions to the table than answers, answers that will need to be looked up

Drawing Inspiration From Around Sheffield

Interesting Type

This post is all about the art, objects, craft work and sights that interested me when I visited the city of Sheffield.

As soon as I got of the train I was drawn to this bill board which was advertising a arena tour of Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds". It was the type face that I liked because it perfect example of what I had in mind for my "Telling a Story on a Box" experiment. It seemed to have a steam punk vibe to it which fits well with the old worldly sci-fi theme of the musical.

I think I will print this off to use it's style to apply it to my experiment of telling a story on a box.

Materials & Techniques

These selection of gifts gave me an insight of the varies materials that could be considered for my project. The outer packaging was made of a black textured card which gave it a unique quality from the first touch and the small intricate details of the laser cut lettering (Denver's Design) made it stand out from the norm. Inside was a selection of place mats made out of wood with intricate patterns cut out yet again from a laser cutter.

So how could I tie this information into my own project? Well it's all down to the narrative that I create for example, if I was to create a narrative for a game say on pirates, then I could use wood as material for a pirates chest gaming box set. I could create a collectable beer mat made out of wood that could have been lifted straight out of one of the games enviroment.

Thinking along the lines of figures which seem to be apart of many gaming spacial edition packagings. I was ruling this idea because of the limited time and resources to actually craete a figure until I saw these wooden structures below. Yet again I they seem to be laser cut because of their inicate detail. They have shown me that I don't have to make a plastic figure, they have shown me that I can think out of the box when appoaching my gaming box set collectables. 

This little novelty by "Ridleys" caught my attention because it had a distinct retro feel to it, this I beleive was down to the choice of materials that was used for the pakaging. These days everything seems to be packaged in a shiny printed card but decades ago, I would imagine that those types of materials where either very expensive to produce, or they weren't even around.

This could well be a very important peice of information to learn from. To add a further authenitic feel to my project, the choice of material would have to fit within the time period.

Finally, I had to include this box, It was perfect example of what kind of outer pakaging I could create. I could imagine opening this to find a collection of gaing gooddies with a game. I could even etch in a design ontop which could turn out well.

I think the main point of this peice of information is to make sure that I use materials that are related to the theme and to make sure the theme that I choose doesn't go beyond all the resoureces and time scale that I have.