Unit 13: Understanding the games industry: Contracts Of Employment

Contracts

A contract is a legal agreement between an employer and an employee, in a games design job you can be expected to work at least 35 hours per week. If it is in the contract you can still get paid whilst you are sick.

Contracts are renegotiable depending on the job you have and the contract terms. you find out your weekly pay the holidays you have each year and the hours they expect you to work, religious holidays may also be aloud. Females also will get time off if they are pregnant and will be paid during this period. In the games industry you may be forced into working overtime if they feel it is needed.   

Employment Contracts

There are many details inside which may differ with each job it shows all the bonuses and insurance you get. It shows retirement bonuses when you retire which includes a payment package with the sum being higher the amount you've worked there. If injured at work it says what you would get from the company.

Within the contract there will also most likely be a confidentiality clause so that you cannot discuss the game or anything you are working on whilst at the company, if you do violate these terms and get discovered about it you will get fired from the job and most likely sued by the company for violating there terms.

License Agreements

License agreements are applied when the game is based off a film, book or TV series. this discusses things such as the storyline characters and title so they can use it for the game. The contract can be cancelled or you may even get sued if you use something without specifying it this would cause major problems and could end production of the game.

This includes discussing how much it will cost for the rights to the product and usually it is paid first. If the game is a successes there will most likely insure they receive more money.

Collaboration Agreements

Recently small companies are building indie or hobby games. The majority of indie and hobby games tend to fail in someway due to the ownership and how much they can expose the game to try and get it to be a success but if it does fail they need to make sure they know who is going to get what. Using a collaboration agreement it sets in motion how the entire project is controlled throughout the creation process and the games life cycle if it is made. It also states clearly who owns the IP, how the game is intended to be used within development and how its going to be released as well as how any possible income is going to be handled within the owners of the project.

NDAs and Confidentiality agreements

NDAs are non disclosure agreements used by a lot of gaming companies this is when you don't want it to be known what you are doing keeping certain secrets confidential with people not being allowed to disclose this information and will be prosecuted if they break this contract. This will be signed by employees and if they do break it will most likely be fired and fined for the damage done to the image of the business releasing confidential information whilst unauthorised to do so.

Joshua Glaze

                                          Understanding the games industry- financial issues
Introduction

 In this blog I talk financial issues in the gaming industry, I will be discussing how games that where a financial flop and failed to live up to there potential could have prevented there game from failing saying what they could have done differently.

According to statistics the revenue for the gaming industry has been gradually increasing through the years. In 2015 the game industry's revenue was stated to be over 4 billion which is over a 7% increase from the previous year. in terms of revenue and sales USA and China are the top of the gaming industry. Currently the UK is the 6th largest video market in the world which is very good as it is alot smaller compared to most of the countries above it.

Game making costs

The gaming industry involves a lot of money with games being very expensive to make as there is many different stages to making a game and many different costs such as voice actors.
some of the many costs include production and development costs. The soundtrack in a game is one factor that would cost a lot as you would either have to get the rights to multiple songs for the game or hire musicians both of which would be costly. There will have to be funds for the developers and voice actors salaries. Licensing would also be a problem as it is very costly however is needed as you wouldn't want a lawsuit as that could destroy the whole production of your game.

How can a game in production be funded

You can fund a game you are creating by yourself however that is definitely not recommended  especially if you don't have a lot of money due to what the overall cost would be and it is very unpredictable how much money you will receive from the game there are still a few benefits if you do decide to go with this though because you would not have to convince or rely on anyone else for the funding of your game as it is all down to yourself also all of the profit that you make from the game will go to you as you have done most of the things in creating the game cutting out the third parties.A bank loan is another possibility however this is risky as you don't know if you will make the money back and if you didn't it could leave you having to pay extra for tax and could end up in debt.

However, this could also land you a significant amount of money which will greatly help with the creation of your game and could make it a lot easier to finish the product quicker which would save time and money. An investor would be very similar to a bank loan however they would be able to pull all of the money from you at any time and that they will take a much larger cut depending on how well the product does. Lastly there is crowd funding through the use of things like Kickstarter this can fail as you could not get funded at all however if you was funded throughout this method then your game will most likely end up being successful as you will already have a target audience for your game and have a fan base who have donated and definitely will buy the game.

Manufacturing and distribution

If you decide to Put your game into an arcade would be expensive and would most likely result in a loss in profit due to the decline in arcade gaming. You would have to have an arcade machine and arcade cartridges can be very costly being about as expensive as a console game and it is much less rewarding. Ordering discs in advanced could also be very costly as you could sell alot less then you had predicting and end up losing out on alot of money.

Promotions and marketing

Good advertising is very important to the success of a game and could make or break a game as you want to spread the word of the game and get more people interested in the game. There are many different ways of promoting a game with the most popular probably being television advertisements making an ad highlighting all the best features of your game and making it look attractive to the audience this however is very costly as you would need to pay for what channel you want to be advertised. There is also things like launch events such as E3 where gamers and developers alike are gathered this would bring alot of attention to your game as it will be seen by alot of people who watch these events and a good performance at this or any other event could greatly influence the success however a bad performance would be very negative for your game. Print advertisements is the final m method of marketing that I will talk about this includes things like posters which would require an artist and cost to get placed in certain places.

Indie game development problems

A major problem when creating a game as a small developer is the fact that it would be hard to spread awareness for your game and it is less likely to earn you major money as there is a huge amount of indie games already available for many consoles with most genres being covered and most likely will be rivaled by big companies already with a huge fan base compared to yours. Also it is harder to get money as there is no guarantee you will do well making it less likely that you will get a loan.

Conclusion

Finally I think that creating a game can be very risky as there is no guarantee you will make profit and it could easily leave you with hardly any money or in debt however if it pays off the rewards to making a game are great, lastly i do not think i will be creating games in the near future as it would be too risky and would cost way too much money and should only be attempted if you will still be stable financially if your game failed massively. Finally I will not be creating a game any time soon as it is way to expensive, also it is far too risky to partake in right now as i am not in a position where i can guarantee that i could create a game and still have money left over to live on.

Understand hardware technologies for game platforms

PlayStation 4 and Xbox one

The RAM used for both console is an 8GB RAM however the type of RAM used is different with the PlayStation 4 having a better type of RAM then the Xbox one with the PlayStation 4 having a faster 8GB GDDR5 memory whilst the Xbox's is a 8GB DDR3 making it quite abit slower then the PlayStation 4's. The PlayStation 4's maximum clock frequency is 2.75GHz compared to the Xbox ones 1.75 GHz making the PlayStation's better. Also the PlayStation 4 has a bandwidth of 140 GB/s compared to the Xbox's 68.3 GB/s which is a significantly lower amount.

PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

The PlayStation 3 has a 256 GDDR3 VRAM and 256 XDR main RAM giving it an overall total of 512 RAM. The PlayStation 3's RAM clocks at a max speed of 650 MHz with a bandwidth of 25.6 GBps this is compared to the Xbox 360's 512MB which is the same amount of MB as the PlayStation 3's however the Xbox 360 has a higher speed with 700 MHz. However the Xbox has a lower bandwidth 22.4 GBps.  

Purpose of memory
What is RAM

RAM or random access memory is a type of computer data storage allowing data items to be read or written. There are different types of RAM with there being SRAM(static) and DRAM(dynamic). In SRAM a bit of data is stored using the state of a six transistor memory cell. This form of RAM is more expensive but is faster requiring less dynamic power than DRAM. DRAM stores a bit of data using a transistor and capacitor pair. This form of memory isn’t as expensive to produce than static RAM so therefore it is the main form of computer memory used in modern computers.



Level 3 Games Design

Unit 78: P2 Concept art Exercises

Joshua Glaze

Computer Game Graphics

Print media

In game graphics

Concept art graphics

Refer to previous searches for more information on this

Graphic Specification

Visual style E.G color ,style, Photorealistic cel shaded and anime

Composition

Typography: The typography is the font and the impression that the font leaves on people for example if it is for someone big and strong then the font will be big and bold and made to stand out so it accurately represents the characters. 

Technical considerations, E.G file format, file size, optimization, file naming conventions, asset management and intended output.

Client brief: My game will be a photo realistic art style as I want it to be similar to the film and I want it to have good graphics to make as if it is graphically good then even people who don't know the film and haven't seen it will be interested in the game as it will be visually good giving the game a wider audience and making it accessible to a wider audience also making it being wanted by more people therefore making it more popular, also the game would be a 16 as it will still be violent so it stays close to what I based the game without we wouldn't want to annoy the older fans of the film who are the main target audience by removing all the violence and censoring what was fun about the film and what made it so great also the game will mainly be targeted towards an older male audience as they are the main people who watched the films and would be the people most interested in the game also there are quite a few more male gamers then female so it'll be more likely to be successful then if it was aimed to a female audience. The game will need to get permission from the original creators of big trouble in little China and will need licensing so that we can legally base the game off of the film.

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.

Games Design – Level 3

Unit 20: Computer Game Platforms and Technologies

Joshua Glaze

Assignment  

Brown box/First generation

The Brown box was an experiment made by engineer Ralph Baer in 1967 and eventually became the Magnavox Odyssey the first commercial home console ever. The Magnavox Odyssey is very basic compared to consoles now as it had no audio output and displayed black and white images with screen overlays being used to simulate color. There were a few other games on the first generation such as the Magnavox Odyssey 200, Atari Pong, Coleco Telstar. 

Atari 2600/Second generation 

The second generation of games consoles added many features that wasn't in the first generation with the first generation not having single player gameplay and only allowing one game to be played other then on the Magnavox Odyssey whereas ROM cartridges where introduced to store games for the second generation. The Fairchild VES was the worlds first CPU based video game console and also the first console to use a microprocessor, eventually it got renamed to the Fairchild Channel F. There where many other consoles released at this time with two of the most successful being the Magnavox Odyssey2 and the Intellivision. However, by far the most successful console at the time was the Atari 2600 selling over 30 million units. Also the Atari 2600 had many big name games such as Pac-Man. Due to the amount of third party game releases and the amount of games available for consoles it led to the video game crash of 1983. A massive recession in games leading to many companies going bankrupt and the video game industry losing a revenue of over 90% and ending the second generation of gaming.

NES/Third generation

The third generation of gaming consoles ended the video game crash with the Nintendo Entertainment system which then dominated the gaming market having very restricted licensing agreements with its developers. Also this generation introduced D-Pad controllers. Although the NES dominated in the United states and Japan in Europe it didn't have as much success as the Sega master system. The master system being Nintendo's main competitor in that era. This generation was also the first to feature RPG games and introduced some of gaming's most famous franchises such as Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda and Mega man. 

Sega Mega Drive/Fourth generation

Sega released the Sega Mega Drive known as the Sega Genesis in the United States. Sega created a new series to compete with Nintendo's massively successful Mario series, This was called Sonic the Hedgehog and it became widely successful being used as a mascot for the Sega Mega Drive with Nintendo and Sega competing and all other consoles not being as successful. Mortal Kombat was released on both consoles with Sega's version getting better views and outselling Nintendos due to Nintendo censoring the violence. Sega Mega Drive was commercially successful selling 40 million units worldwide. The top selling console of this generation was again took by Nintendo with the Super NES selling over 49 million units. with there machine having increased sound and video capabilities and having hugely successful console exclusives like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda being carried on.

PlayStation/Fifth generation

The Fifth generation was the first to introduce 3d polygon graphics and introduced analog controllers. Nintendo and Sega no longer had the most sales with Sony's PlayStation being the most successful. Nintendo stuck to cartridges for the Nintendo 64 making many third party developers reluctant to make games for Nintendo. Final Fantasy VII changed over from N64 to PlayStation due to storage capacity issues. Nintendo dominated the handheld market during this time with the Game boy color. The Sega Saturn was dominated by the PlayStation for sales with it being the third highest selling surpassed by the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 being first and second respectively.

PlayStation 2/Sixth generation

The sixth generation has the most successful console of all time with the PlayStation 2(PS2) selling over 150 million units and easily dominating this era of gaming. Its main competitions being the Xbox

and then the Nintendo Game Cube both selling over 20 million with the Sega Dream Cast selling over 9 million. Sony secured licensing for many games like Final Fantasy X, Grand Theft Auto 3 and Metal Gear Solid 2 making it outperform its competitors with the PS2 utilizing 128-bit graphics. The hand held gaming consoles massively expanded with consoles like the Game boy advance. Nintendo dominated the handheld consoles with no competition coming close to there success

PlayStation 3/Seventh generation

The seventh generation was started of by the release of the Xbox 360 which was released in November 2005 and rendered natively at high definition video resolutions, The PlayStation 3 came out in November of 2006 and had introduced HD movie playback having a 3D blu-ray disc player. Nintendo also released the Wii in November 2006 and this ended up as the top selling console of the generation having motion sensing technology making the console have a much wider audience then the other 2. Also the early PlayStation 3 models offer backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 1 and 2. Handheld Gaming was mainly dominated by the Nintendo DS offering touch screen technology however Sony released a handheld the PlayStation Portable which also did quite well



PlayStation 4/Eighth generation

This generation started off with the Wii U however it could not replicate the success of the original Wii and did not sell well.

The PlayStation 4

and Xbox 1 were both released in November 2013, so far the PlayStation 4 has been the most successful console of this generation with the Xbox 1 coming at second, Sony and Microsoft are both making upgraded consoles utilizing 4k graphics with the PlayStation 4 pro and the Xbox 1 S. Nintendo released the Nintendo 3ds an upgrade to there Ds utilizing 3d features in games. PlayStation also released the PlayStation Vita also using touch screen features not present on the original. However mobile gaming has made handheld consoles less popular with many choosing to play games on there smartphones.

Impact of computer games on society

Computer games have a massive impact on young people and can be bad if played excessively, around 10% of gamers have shown symptoms associated with addiction. http://mediasmarts.ca/video-games/concerns-about-video-games Gaming can lead people to isolate themselves from friends and become less social because they play games for hours. Gaming can cost quite abit of money if you want to get the best things and can also cost yourself as it could take away time when you could be doing more important things.

Gaming can also lead to a separation from reality with many people taking what they see in games and applying it in real life and forgetting that there is a life outside of gaming. Gamers have neglected there children to play world of warcraft and people have robbed others after playing Grand theft auto. http://crimefeed.com/2014/08/video-game-crimes/ 

There are also many benefits to gaming, it helps people with dyslexia as it is a good way for them too concentrate and is also shown to improve players eyesight. Gaming helps older people by keeping there brain active and it also improves your coordination and allows you to react faster due to your brain processing lots of information whilst gaming. http://mentalfloss.com/article/65008/15-surprising-benefits-playing-video-games

The army have used gaming for military training as it helps for teamwork and strategy during wars without being in actual danger and allows trainers to find there weaknesses and strengths for the trainees with people who play fast action games having greater visual performance and prediction capacity then those who don't. http://www.versiondaily.com/how-the-u-s-uses-video-games-for-military-training/