Much like everything else these days, the world of video games is evolving at a rapid rate. With new games and gaming related news being released every day, it can be a bit overwhelming to try and keep track of it all. Below I've listed a few tips to stay up to date with both gaming news and the world of interactive media as a whole.
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Jack of All Trades, Master of Some
The short answer is, there's no way to be totally in the know about every aspect of gaming and interactive media. So the path that I suggest is to become a "Jack of All Trades, Master of Some". Subscribing to RSS feeds of sites like IGN and Polygon and browsing the headlines once every day is a great way to stay updated with what's happening in the world of gaming without getting too in depth. You can do the same for interactive media by checking out sites like Mashable. One way to look at it is if you were to talk with someone in an elevator about the current events of that day. If you had a 20-second elevator ride to converse with someone about this topic, would you come off as knowledgeable or not?
You SHOULD, however, pick an area that really interests you and read as much as you can about that subject. For me and my future as a web designer, I want to read anything that talks about best practices or new techniques to help with my workflow. And for games, I like to read anything about Nintendo. They're the company I grew up with as a kid and I still love all of their games today. By doing this, you can focus your efforts on what is important to you while still understanding what is happening in the larger areas of interest.
#StaySocial
So much conversation happens on social media channels like Twitter. If you are not already involved in the social space, you really should be. One of the great things about Twitter is that you can essentially customize your own news channel. Following different users, creating lists, and using hashtags will allow you to customize what tweets show up on your timeline. This is a great way to stay up to date with up to the minute happenings in the world of games and interactive media. You can also talk directly with those in the industry. This provides you with valuable experience from the professionals that would be hard to get anywhere else.
Play More, Do More!
The above tips are great for staying updated, but they can only go so far. The absolute best way to educated about video games is to go PLAY them. Carve out some time to play that new indie hit that Reddit is talking about, or the AAA title that has been all over your newsfeed. Make your own opinions and learn what's popular for yourself. And whatever your interest in interactive media is, DO that. Make a website using that new coding technique you read about. Continually work on your skills design skills. By PLAYING more and DOING more, not only are you educating yourself, but maybe you are helping educate someone else, too.
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And with that, we've reached the end (?) of The Game of Life. I'd like to keep posting if I can, but my schedule is up in the air at the moment, as I don't know how much "free time" I'll have after graduating and starting my new job. However, I'm on Twitter @JWylie15 and am always up for talking video games with you. Thanks for reading, and until next time, as always...
Monday, May 19, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
"Theory Quest" - Learn Music Theory. Save The World.
Editor's Note: We've got a little bit of a different blog post this week. As some of you know, I'm wrapping up my Master's degree, and as part of that, I have to present a capstone project. As you can probably tell, I really like video games, so my capstone is an interactive video game that teaches people music theory. For this blog post, I want to give a brief overview of the game. Sorry for the shameless self promotion!
Imagine a world with no music. It's a haunting proposition, right? Unfortunately, it's already starting to happen. There are many schools around the nation, like in Philadelphia, that are cutting arts programs like music from their curriculum due to budget constraints. In a minuscule effort to combat this, I've developed a video game called Theory Quest that aims to teach players some of the basic parts of music theory. Below I've outlined a little bit about how the game works.
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The Story
Set in the far-off land of Musicía, dark times have fallen. Staf, the evil king of theory, has risen to power. He aims to take control over all of the music in the land! Opposing him is our hero Kleff, who was a knight under the rule of the last benevolent king of Musicía. Kleff believes that music should be available to any who want it, so he confronts the dark king. Unfortunately, he is defeated and cast to the furthest reaches of the kingdom. Kleff swears to fight through Staf's army and work his way back and free the kingdom from his tyrannical reign! (Below: On the left, Kleff, and on the right, Staf)
Imagine a world with no music. It's a haunting proposition, right? Unfortunately, it's already starting to happen. There are many schools around the nation, like in Philadelphia, that are cutting arts programs like music from their curriculum due to budget constraints. In a minuscule effort to combat this, I've developed a video game called Theory Quest that aims to teach players some of the basic parts of music theory. Below I've outlined a little bit about how the game works.
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The Story
Set in the far-off land of Musicía, dark times have fallen. Staf, the evil king of theory, has risen to power. He aims to take control over all of the music in the land! Opposing him is our hero Kleff, who was a knight under the rule of the last benevolent king of Musicía. Kleff believes that music should be available to any who want it, so he confronts the dark king. Unfortunately, he is defeated and cast to the furthest reaches of the kingdom. Kleff swears to fight through Staf's army and work his way back and free the kingdom from his tyrannical reign! (Below: On the left, Kleff, and on the right, Staf)
The Game
As mentioned above, the purpose of this game is to provide players with a fun alternative to studying music theory. In Theory Quest, there are 6 levels. Players progress by clicking on the right answer to the question asked. If a player gets a question wrong, they will have the option to "repeat" the question, losing no health and getting a do-over. But players only get one of these per every 10 questions, so they will need to think wisely about when is the best time to use it. At any point during a level, players may click on the "Learn" button to get some assistance with the subject matter. In levels 1-5, you travel through the land of Musicía and learn about some different aspects of music theory by battling one of the generals of Staf's army. Some bosses include characters like Nöte the Archer and Kørd the Fighter. As you might have guessed from their names, these levels teach players about notes and chords, respectively. Each level has an overall theme to it, and once players reach level 6, they'll put all of their new skills to the test as they battle the dark king himself.
The Musicía Coliseum, one of the levels where Kleff must do battle. |
The Technology
As a kid, I cut my teeth on 8-bit video games and I am still a huge fan of both the games and the pixel-based art style today. I wanted Theory Quest to incorporate this aesthetic, so I used Adobe Illustrator to create each character, animation sprite sheet, and background bit by bit (literally). It was a long, but rewarding process. For the actual game itself, I used Adobe Edge Animate to import all my assets and lay them out on a timeline. Adding in buttons for triggers, this timeline is what helps keep the game going. My one regret is that because of time constraints, I was not able to implement my own chiptune soundtrack. Instead, I used some creative commons songs from chip artist Rocco W on Free Music Archive. Maybe in the future I'll patch an update with some songs of my own.
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Bookmark the Theory Quest website and get ready to play on May 21st! Until next time, game on!
Thursday, May 1, 2014
"Mythbusters" - Gaming's Greatest Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales
On April 26th, a group of excavators raided a landfill in New Mexico where it was rumored that Atari dumped unsold copies of E.T. back in 1982. The result? The rumor was true. Several E.T. cartridges were found in the landfill, confirming a 20+ year old rumor. This news got me thinking: what are some of the other great myths of gaming, and have they been confirmed as true or false? Let's take a look at some of them.
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The 'Madden Curse'
The story goes that the athletes who appear on the cover of EA Games's annual Madden Football series go on to be injured or otherwise not reach the same level of performance in their career again. This article from Cracked has a brief history of the "curse", as well as a few notable examples. Obviously, there's no way to really confirm or deny a "curse", but looking at what's happened to the athletes the season following their cover debut, the results are kind of eerie...
"You Can Get A Gun In Zelda", etc.
"Yeah, man, you can totally get a gun in Zelda. My uncle works for Nintendo, he told me. You just have to beat the game three times without dying, while doing the dungeons in reverse order, and then you get it instead of a sword!" Before the days of everything being on the Internet, game secrets and Easter Eggs were passed from person to person on the playground, with everyone trying to outdo one another. As you might imagine, this lead to some "features" that were outright fabrications. Case in point, "you can get a gun in Zelda", or "you can play as Bowser in Mario", etc. The more outlandish, the better.
Atari Dumped All The Unsold E.T. Games In A New Mexico Landfill
As mentioned above, this one actually turned out to be true. Blamed for the video game crash of 1983, E.T. sold so poorly that Atari couldn't GIVE copies of the game away. So, as the story goes, they were dumped in a landfill. Turns out they weren't lying, though the numbers may have been slightly exaggerated. While some claimed that thousands upon thousands of games were buried, only a couple hundred were found at the dig site (which is still quite a few). This was one of those rare occurrences where an old legend of such regard was actually confirmed to be true.
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Do you have any video game myths that you like? Share them with me!
Until next time, game on!
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The 'Madden Curse'
The story goes that the athletes who appear on the cover of EA Games's annual Madden Football series go on to be injured or otherwise not reach the same level of performance in their career again. This article from Cracked has a brief history of the "curse", as well as a few notable examples. Obviously, there's no way to really confirm or deny a "curse", but looking at what's happened to the athletes the season following their cover debut, the results are kind of eerie...
"So you want to be on my game cover? Let's make a deal..." [Joystiq.com] |
"You Can Get A Gun In Zelda", etc.
"Yeah, man, you can totally get a gun in Zelda. My uncle works for Nintendo, he told me. You just have to beat the game three times without dying, while doing the dungeons in reverse order, and then you get it instead of a sword!" Before the days of everything being on the Internet, game secrets and Easter Eggs were passed from person to person on the playground, with everyone trying to outdo one another. As you might imagine, this lead to some "features" that were outright fabrications. Case in point, "you can get a gun in Zelda", or "you can play as Bowser in Mario", etc. The more outlandish, the better.
"Da-na-na....nah?" [ZeldaUniverse.net] |
Atari Dumped All The Unsold E.T. Games In A New Mexico Landfill
As mentioned above, this one actually turned out to be true. Blamed for the video game crash of 1983, E.T. sold so poorly that Atari couldn't GIVE copies of the game away. So, as the story goes, they were dumped in a landfill. Turns out they weren't lying, though the numbers may have been slightly exaggerated. While some claimed that thousands upon thousands of games were buried, only a couple hundred were found at the dig site (which is still quite a few). This was one of those rare occurrences where an old legend of such regard was actually confirmed to be true.
Myth confirmed! [Reuters.com] |
Do you have any video game myths that you like? Share them with me!
Until next time, game on!
Labels:
atari,
et,
madden,
madden curse,
mario,
myth,
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zelda
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
"25 Years Young" - A Look Back At The Life of the Nintendo Game Boy
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Quality Gaming, Anywhere
Link's Awakening [Pixelacos.com] |
The Birth and Legacy of Mobile Gaming
It's not hard to think that those games of Candy Crush that you enjoy on your lunch break would not be possible without the Game Boy. The Game Boy proved that there was a market for mobile gaming, an industry that is expected to push past $100 billion in value by 2017. Nintendo themselves continue to push out handheld systems; the Game Boy gave way to the Game Boy Color (GBC), to the Game Boy Advance (GBA), to the Nintendo DS (NDS), to the current Nintendo 3DS (3DS). None of these highly successful systems would be possible without the initial success of the original Game Boy.
Music To My Ears
Although the original model has been replaced by newer versions in recent years, the Game Boy has found a second life in the hands of musicians. The genre of music known as "chiptune" consists of songs composed using the sound chips of video game systems to replicate the familiar bleeps and bloops of yesteryear. The Game Boy has become one of the most popular chiptune instruments. It is really amazing how something as limiting as 4-bits of sound can give way to so much creativity. For an example of some of the sounds the Game Boy can produce, click here.
Hard to believe all this can make such awesome music. [LevelUpVideoGames.net] |
Happy 25th birthday, Game Boy! I may have to wear prescription lenses for the rest of my life by trying to play you in the dark after my parents had told me to sleep, but I love you all the same! Until next time, game on!
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BONUS: Here's an awesome interactive piece about the Gameboy.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Checkpoint for 4/18/2014
It's Friday, so you know what time it is! Time for another "Checkpoint"!
Georgia Offering $25M Tax Break For Video Game Developers
Georgia governor Nathan Deal signed a bill that will provide $25 million in tax breaks to encourage video game developers to plant their studios in the southern state. A number of small studios already exist in Georgia, and this bill will help ensure that they continue to call the state home while also encouraging other developers to relocate. It's always nice to see politicians recognize the benefit that games can bring, rather than blaming them for violence. Right, Senator Yee?
Sony Sells All Stock In Square-Enix
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Halo Composer Marty O'Donnell Fired By Bungie
Marty O'Donnell tweeted that he had been "terminated without cause" by developer Bungie's board of directors. O'Donnell wrote and composed a great majority of the music for Bungie's flagship Halo series, and had done additional work on their new title Destiny. This is a strange move on Bungie's part, and stranger still that a reason was not provided for O'Donnell's firing. Personally, I don't think that the Halo series would have been as memorable without O'Donnell's themes. The main theme from Halo (see below) has become iconic. I wish O'Donnell the best, though I feel that a man of his talents will not be unemployed for very long.
Georgia Offering $25M Tax Break For Video Game Developers
Georgia governor Nathan Deal signed a bill that will provide $25 million in tax breaks to encourage video game developers to plant their studios in the southern state. A number of small studios already exist in Georgia, and this bill will help ensure that they continue to call the state home while also encouraging other developers to relocate. It's always nice to see politicians recognize the benefit that games can bring, rather than blaming them for violence. Right, Senator Yee?
Tripwire Interactive (creators of the Red Orchestra series) make their home in GA. [1cpublishing.eu] |
Sony Computer Entertainment sold all of it's 9,520,000 shares of Square Enix stock to a company called SMBC Nikko Securities last week. No reason was given for the sudden fire sale. Sony, for their part, gained a nice chunk of cash: £28m (pounds) to be exact. It is a bit sad to see something like this, as the Sony/Square-Enix partnership had produced many great JRPGs over the years.
Final Fantasy VII was one of the first great games to come out of the Sony/SE partnership. [DigitalSpy.co.uk] |
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Until next time, game on!
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
The Importance of 'Feel'
Doing whatever a spider can. [SuperWes.com] |
Rock on, bearded bro. [Amazon.com] |
The concept of 'feel' is just as important in things that you do outside of video games. Think about driving a stick-shift vehicle. At first, you might need to think about what you're doing: release the clutch, shift gears, etc. But after a while, everything becomes automatic. The car is more of an extension of yourself than anything. That's an example of real-life 'feel', also commonly referred to as "being in the zone". What a person is doing and what the concept means to them may differ, but that idea of being "locked in" to something is present across a multitude of platforms. In baseball, this might mean that a hitter has 5 home runs in his last five games. The platform may change, but the 'feel' remains.
More and more games and life try to capture the sense of feel, and more and more it eludes them. The best games and pursuits in life are tuned so well that you often don't realize what you're doing. Hopefully in the future, we won't be talking about the concept of 'feel' because it will be ingrained into everything we do or in everything we play.
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Until next time, game on!
Labels:
arkham,
batman,
feel,
game,
guitar hero,
locked in,
spider man,
spider-man,
spiderman,
zone
Friday, April 11, 2014
Checkpoint for 4/11/14
After a little break, the weekly "Checkpoints" are back!
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Big Smash Bros. Blowout!
On Tuesday, Nintendo aired a Super Smash Bros. themed edition of their popular "Nintendo Direct" video series. The video brought news "directly" to the players, and was streamed across YouTube, Twitch, and Nintendo's personal site. The next iteration of Nintendo's popular party-brawler Super Smash Bros. is due out later this year, and fans were eager for any news that this presentation would bring. And they were not disappointed. A release date for the 3DS version was announced for the summer, with the Wii U version slated for winter. Several veteran fighters (Yoshi and Charizard among others) were announced to be returning alongside newcomer Greninja. You can read all about the information at the game's official website.
Buried E.T. Atari Cartridges To Be Excavated
A team of documentarians and contractors will travel to New Mexico on April 26th to excavate the landfill where the famous E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atari game cartridges are buried. E.T. for Atari is infamous for being such a bad game that retailers couldn't even GIVE it away to consumers, much less sell it. So, all of the unsold copies had to be dumped in the New Mexico Desert (or so the story goes). The documentary is being headed up by Zak Penn (The Avengers, X-Men 2). Source
SCEA Confirms The Last of Us Remastered Headed For PS4
Sony Computer Entertainment of America confirmed on Twitter that a remastered version of their award winning PS3 game The Last of Us is coming to PS4. Its always great for new audiences to experience a high-quality game like TLoU, but I can't help but wonder: a lot of people who own a PS4 probably own a PS3. Which means they would probably have TLoU on PS3. Regardless, TLoU is such a good game that I imagine most wouldn't mind taking another trip through the world, as long as the price is right. See the announcement video below:
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Until next time, game on!
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Big Smash Bros. Blowout!
On Tuesday, Nintendo aired a Super Smash Bros. themed edition of their popular "Nintendo Direct" video series. The video brought news "directly" to the players, and was streamed across YouTube, Twitch, and Nintendo's personal site. The next iteration of Nintendo's popular party-brawler Super Smash Bros. is due out later this year, and fans were eager for any news that this presentation would bring. And they were not disappointed. A release date for the 3DS version was announced for the summer, with the Wii U version slated for winter. Several veteran fighters (Yoshi and Charizard among others) were announced to be returning alongside newcomer Greninja. You can read all about the information at the game's official website.
This game looks so, so good. [AverageJoeGaming.com] |
A team of documentarians and contractors will travel to New Mexico on April 26th to excavate the landfill where the famous E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atari game cartridges are buried. E.T. for Atari is infamous for being such a bad game that retailers couldn't even GIVE it away to consumers, much less sell it. So, all of the unsold copies had to be dumped in the New Mexico Desert (or so the story goes). The documentary is being headed up by Zak Penn (The Avengers, X-Men 2). Source
What is even happening...? [Geek.com] |
Sony Computer Entertainment of America confirmed on Twitter that a remastered version of their award winning PS3 game The Last of Us is coming to PS4. Its always great for new audiences to experience a high-quality game like TLoU, but I can't help but wonder: a lot of people who own a PS4 probably own a PS3. Which means they would probably have TLoU on PS3. Regardless, TLoU is such a good game that I imagine most wouldn't mind taking another trip through the world, as long as the price is right. See the announcement video below:
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Until next time, game on!
Labels:
atari,
curation,
et,
nintendo,
ps3,
ps4,
smash bros,
the last of us,
video game
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