Level 3 Games design 

Unit 78: Digital graphics for computer games

  Understand Theory & Application used within Computer Game Graphics

Joshua Glaze

I have chosen to analyse how differently application is used within computer game graphics by comparing two games FIFA 17 and Flappy bird I will be comparing the artistic style, Computer game graphics, Pixel, Types of Digital Graphics, File Extensions, Compression, Image Capture, Optimising, and Storage of Image Assets. I have chosen a 2D and a 3D game as they have a very different theory and application of computer game graphics.

 I have chosen FIFA 17 as it has a photo realistic art style looking very life like being a sports emulator so it needs to be as close to reality as possible with players wanting it to be close to the real thing. This is opposite to Flappy bird witch uses a compressed pixelated art style as it is on the phone and is a much more simple game then fifa being alot more low budget and only available on mobile which has alot lower graphical capabilities then consoles like PC, PS4 and Xbox. Fifa 17 uses the Frostbite engine using TIFF compared to flappy birds use of JPEG which is very different as a JPEG is compressed to fit alot of information on to it. The TIFF is a much larger file as it contains a higher amount of detail which is why its better for high detail games like FIFA whereas a JPEG is much more suited to a lower quality of graphics used in flappy bird.

Flappy bird doesn't use image capture whereas FIFA does. Flappy bird animates there backgrounds to make them match the graphical style of the game but other phone games can use image capture to insert pictures into there games after editing them to match the graphical style of the game. FIFA uses image capture to capture the realism of the game with it using cameras to capture the player faces giving them a realistic in game look close to that of the real players. Also FIFA uses the game face feature allowing you to put your own face in the game as a virtual player.

Both Flappy bird use FIFA use optimisation to reduce the file size whilst maintaining the high quality of the graphics reducing the file as much as they can to give us the fastest possible download speed. They would still want to maintain a good quality to engage the players into playing the games. 

The developers and editors of both games would have used PSD files allowing the games to remain easily editable and easily transferable for the editors so they can transfer the files between each over making it alot quicker.

The developers of flappy bird although it looks simple use PSD files in case of small errors on the bird or the pipe making it alot easier if the file stays open so that they wouldn't risk losing any of there progress needing it to constantly stay open so they can carry on where there left off.

Overall Flappy bird and Fifa 17 show a very different use of the theory and application used within computer game graphics being very different as one is a 2D mobile game and the other a 3D home console game needed a much higher powered device to power it to its full graphical capabilities and both using different things to match the style and device they are designed for.