MDDN 243 - MDA

Blue: Designer. Green: Player

• Mechanics are the base components of the game - its rules, every basic action the player can take in the game, the algorithms and data structures in the game engine etc.
• Dynamics are the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player input and "cooperating" with other mechanics.
• Aesthetics are the emotional responses evoked in the player - joy, frustration, fantasy, fellowship.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Mechanics: The core mechanic for XCOM is command. Command is used to allow the player to control all of their characters, commanding the XCOM facility to research technology, create new engineering facilities and command how their units act. Command is a core mechanic that controls all the other secondary mechanics such as:

Building facilities

Controlling units

Researching technology

Training units to level them

These secondary mechanics are there to control the game, but are in turn controlled by Command.

Dynamic: The dynamics of XCOM: Enemy Unknown focus heavily on the turn-based feature of the combat. Most of the player input is achieved by a single button press, as the player can scroll through a toolbar of options whether it is putting their character into Overwatch, Firing or Throwing a grenade. The dynamic this creates is a simple effect that is easy for the player to control and understand the controls. This works in unison with the easy way to control the main XCOM facility screen. Buttons along the top are available to scroll between Engineering, Science and situation rooms, where the majority of the action is taking place.

Aesthetics: The aesthetic that XCOM is trying to get across is that of a broken world, invaded by aliens and completely destroyed, while political heads gather together to support and develp the XCOM initiative (Extraterrestrial Combat Unit). The graphics certainly get across that the world is in ruin by using a lot of darker colours, but more importantly, the way that the player is referred to as Commander by the characters in the game make it feel as if the player is in control, enforcing the Command mechanic. This is a great aesthetic and helps the character to feel powerful and in command, which is exactly how they should!

MDDN 243 - Change

After chatting with the tutors on Thursday i came to realise that what i have been looking more closely into is more the secondary mechanics rather than the core mechanics. So i went back to the start to re-look at the mechanics and used this diagram to put everything in the right place for each game genre.

MDDN 243 - Chosen Mechanic

Each of these images gives a description of how the different games use the game Mechanic and how they differ from one another. I chose these games in particular because their interpretation of research and technology development is different from one another, giving a broad example of the application of Research and Development of Technology.

MDDN 243 - 3 Game Mechanics

MDDN 211: Proposal

The intended concept theme for Assignment One Iterate is Lava and its effect on landscapes. I will edit together found footage of volcanos, lava and smoke to create three different iterations with different atmospheric moods. There will be a visible contrast between the created atmospheric moods to make a difference. I intend to rely heavily on the editing techniques used for each iteration to create the atmosphere rather than relying on music or sound.

The first chosen iteration's atmosphere is Aggression. Lava has the natural appearance of aggression because of its danger, especially when a volcano is erupting. To create the impression of anger without using these particular scenes will require the editing techniques of jump shots, cross-cutting and speeding up footage to make each scene appear as if there is an intense motive behind the movement of lava. This will make it appear as if it has a purpose and look like it has somewhere to go. The speed will definitely affect the atmosphere of lava. Using jump cuts will remove a lot of unnecessary footage of slow moving lava, which will assist in making it look as if the lava has motive. Also, cross cutting to over events that are occurring such as plumes of smoke or flowing lava will make it appear as if all of the footage is occurring from one volcano.

The second chosen atmosphere is Melancholy, a complete opposite to the previous iteration. This will create a large contrast between the two while using similar themed footage. Again, due to eruptions of a volcano, creating a Melancholic feel to the footage will require a large focus on the particular editing techniques, without relying solely on sound. Slow cutting will make the shot appear more emotional to the viewer, as a clip over 15 seconds long approximately appears to be slow in Western culture. Dissolve will be particularly important to create a melancholic feel. Slowing down footage and using rewound footage would create a slow, melancholic feel. By using match shots between shapes found in the smoke or lava to the shape of more emotional, sad images or footage, the melancholic atmosphere is more easily created.

The final iteration atmosphere is Tension created by the sense of stalking and following. This is the more comedic iteration over the other two. To create the sense of tension, the order of footage will be most important. It can be created by footage of lava appearing on shot is following an anxious character using cross cutting. This will give the impression that both shots are occurring at the same time and making it look as if the lava is following the character. Establishing shots could be used to create this scene with the anxious character. It is possible that a montage of jump shots could be used to show the character running from the emerging lava, cutting a long scene of running down into a few short shots.

MDDN 243 - Summarising Mechanics

In previous posts there has been a large amount of information and descriptions, and for those that don't wish to read it all, I am going to summarise particular game mechanics.

Strategy games
The core mechanic behind strategy games is Command

Secondary Mechanics:
          -  Research Technology and develop Sciences
          - Build up an Empire or city to defend yourself
          - Destroy the enemy threat through conquest, domination or research

Role-playing games
The core mechanic behind Role-playing games is Movement and Combat

Secondary Mechanics:
          - Leveling character system
          - Inventory organisation system
          - Loot and Looting system
          - Character customisation and personalisation
          - Persistent weapon, armor and skill upgrades
          - Quest system and detailed main story-line

Horror games (specifically Amnesia)
The core mechanic for horror games is Movement and Stealth
         
Secondary Mechanic:
          - Dependence on a light source
          - decreasing amount of fuel for light
          - Sanity level
          - Survival and Helplessness
          - Minimal to no combat

MDDN 211 - Found Footage

From my first attempt at finding footage to use for the theme of Volcanoes / Lava I have come up with a few videos, each with footage that can be used in multiple iterations. I get the feeling that once i start editing, 1 minute will be a lot shorter than i originally think. Therefore, some of the videos that are linked below might not actually be used.
I also found a video called Burn, that involves a lot of things being set on fire. A specific scene in the video is a man on fire running down a hallway and collapsing on the table. This sped up - Could increase its aggression, which would work fabulously.

Lava and volcanic eruption videos:
http://vimeo.com/57103247
http://vimeo.com/63518399
http://vimeo.com/6793654
http://vimeo.com/8648162
http://vimeo.com/67687294
http://vimeo.com/24084400

Burn video:
http://vimeo.com/20706577