Game Design Blog #9 - Twitch Plays Pokemon

        There are fans of the Pokemon franchise who have stuck with the franchise since they were children. There are fans of the Pokemon franchise who strayed away from the series after the first generation or the third generation. There are some things in the franchise that still bring these two groups of people in harmony though. 

        On February 12 2014 a random twitch user going by the name Twitchplayspokemon developed a program that would work with the video streaming website twitch. This program streamed Pokemon Red and allowed twitch users to put in a command in the twitch chat that would control the actions of the player in the game. This phenomenon became known as Twitch plays Pokemon. Whenever a twitch user typed in the commands left, right down, up, a, b, start, or select the protagonist on the screen would act according to those commands. Over 1 million people participated in this experience and Twitch plays Pokemon became its own subculture and fans became creative with this phenomenon. 

         There was a lore that was developed with the quest and twitch users had many reasons for why certain events transpired. A good example would be the protagonist’s Pokemon Pidgeot. The Pidgeot in the game was referred to by the fandom as “The Messiah” or “Bird Jesus” for its incredible battle strength and basically commanding dominance in the whole run of the game. The fact that the fandom could create a compelling lore for the game despite having little control of the player’s actions is astounding. The creator of the game has said he has “interest in continuing the event through each generation of Pokemon.” Other live streamers have implemented the program he made into other games such as Minecraft or the Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound. Twitch Plays Pokemon is an inspiring event that many fans of the series and even individuals who use the internet will view as a historic event in the Pokemon franchise. Currently the website is streaming Pokemon Stadium 2 implimenting the same formula as the original Twitch Plays Pokemon.

Resources: 

Suszeck, Mike. "Twitch Plays Pokemon: Creating an oral history in real-time."Joystiq. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. <http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/26/twitch-plays-pokemon-creating-an-oral-history-in-real-time/>.

"TwitchPlaysPokemon." Twitch. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. <http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon>

Progress on my Capstone Project - Storyboards finished and Enhancing my skills

As the date for capstone presentations slowly approaches I find myself pressed for time on getting everything in order. My progress on the project however is currently on schedule and I am good to go for now. I need to start working more and I have quit my job to allow myself to have more time for this project. This project is the gateway to many better job opportunities so I devote my time to that. 

I have finished my rough storyboards for the project and I await the review from my director to see what I need to improve on. The sprites have been enhanced to look more crisp for my project and each character that appears now has a sprite of their own. The sprites size has increased so they won’t look blurry when I craft the graphic novel. An issue I have had with sprite comics in the past is that my sprites usually look blurry when I put it onto a Photoshop canvas but now I have eliminated that problem with the help of Adobe Illustrator a program in which I have no prior experience in. 

This project has already expanded my horizons by allowing me to gain more experience with more software which I need to have knowledge of in the work field. The programs I learn the more job opportunities open up for me as a person in the field of Communications. I now need to make some sample pages so I get a feel of what my actual novel is going to look like. I need to use the Photoshop filters to make the backgrounds look like they belong with the sprites. I plan on taking actual photos of the backgrounds and with Photoshop I am planning on editing those backgrounds to appear more sprite like as to much the cartoonish appearance of my sprites. Thanks to my existing knowledge on how to use the Photoshop program I am able to execute this method with minimal problems. As I am on schedule I hope to continue to be on this path and enhance my repertoire of skills for the work world.

Special Effects Blog 2: Making the zombie project easier

          One of the difficult affects I am anticipating to work with in the zombie footage is having myself (the subject) walk in the graveyard off screen. The reasoning for this is because I plan to have my feet hidden behind a stone wall for most of the clip and then I will have to add them back when I walk off the screen. I need to enhance my mastery of the 3d special effects for this undertaking as I believe it will help achieve what I desire for this clip. 

          I could have my storyboard show me walking sideways offscreen instead of backwards off screen. That way I could hide my feet still and won’t have to hide them in. Perhaps I could also add in an extra clip that is exclusively me walking off of the scene. With that clip I would have to record a separate walking sequence. 

         Another problem will be animating the backpack in the scene in addition to myself. This makes it so now I have two objects I need to rotoscope and manage. Both of these objects will be showing movement and both need to be rotoscoped in the composition. Again I could have a separate clip with me putting on my backpack instead of the normal clip of me rising and putting in my backpack in the same clip. Separate clips with separate actions seem to be easier to manage and combine into one film then to have to manage them all at the same time. Managing them all at the same time would be hectic so most likely I am going to have to manage different clips in different compositions rather than all of them in one to reduce chaos in the editing process of my film.

Game Design Blog #8 - The side games of Pokemon and their impact

The Pokemon franchise has produced so many spin off games and many argue that they are just as successful sometimes more successful than the main games. There are some gamers in the gaming world who have played some of the side games but none of the main games. These games take normal concepts and apply Pokemon to them.

In Pokemon Snap “players of the game proceed through various environments in a vehicle that travels through the air, in water and on land and try to “snap” the best pictures of various Pokemon® (pocket monster) characters. The player uses various techniques to get good pictures of the characters including using food and music to entice the characters into positions in which good pictures can be taken.”

In blockbusters around the United States there were kiosks where players could bring their memory packs and have the pictures they took in game to be printed out. The original concept for Pokemon Snap was originally just a normal game where the player would go into the wild and take pictures of normal animals. In order to make the game more interesting to Nintendo gamers, Nintendo had Pokemon applied to the game instead.

Many gamers and even non-gamers are exposed to another side game which is the Pokemon trading card game. Many young children were unaware of how to play the game so the Pokemon Trading Card Game for the Gameboy Color was made. This game helped players learn the actual rules and expanded interest in the actual card game for video gamers who were unaware of its existence. Pokemon Pinball and its many sequels brought the joys of regular Pinball to a portable system. Many argue that it is a better experience than real pinball. 

The side games are important to the franchise and will be continued to be created as long as the fans keep asking for them.

resource: Link, P. J., et al. (2002). Kiosk for printing and communicating video game images, Google Patents.

Game Design Blog #7 - Gender Roles and The Pinacle of Popularity in Pokemon

It is no secret at this point that Pokemon is popular. Kids, teenagers, and adults all take part in the culture our society has created around Pokemon. According to the article “Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon”: Pokemon “might be appropriately be described, in anthropological terms, as a “cultural practice”. It is amazing that this series of video games, toys, shows, and card games has reached the point of being a cultural practice. Pokemon has even reached the point of entering into other domains. In the most recent 2014 World Cup Japan’s mascot was Pikachu who is the mascot of the Pokemon series. 

A huge part of Pokemon’s popularity is its appeal to both girls and boys. Starting with Pokemon Crystal in 2001 players of the Pokemon game were able to choose whether or not they wanted their trainer to be a male or a female. The games have since had this choice for players. Nintendo at this point became aware of their audience and made that point to add such a feature. 

In most forms of media girls are represented poorly. In Pokemon most of the female cast turns out to be the favorite characters of most fans. In each game there is a champion (or a last boss) at the end that the player must face to finally beat the game. For the first three generations of Pokemon all of these champions are male. Finally in Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl the champion is a trainer named Cynthia. The general consensus among fans is that Cynthia is the toughest champion that any player has faced in any game. In the anime she also plays the same role and acts as a teacher figure to the main characters in her story arc. She is a good role model for girls that are tired of having the same damsel in distress characters in their animated shows.

Resource: Ogletree, Shirley M., Cristal N. Martinez, Trent R. Turner, and Brad Mason. "Pokémon: Exploring the Role of Gender."Sex Roles 50.11/12 (2004): 851-859. Print.

Capstone Progress

Half of the semester has passed by so quickly it’s hard to imagine how fast the next half is going to be. Production towards my actual graphic novel has begun and I have done many things to further my progress. I have crafted sprites from a wonderful website that lets users customize their own sprites. These sprites will serve as the cornerstone for my story. They are the tools that will help illustrate 

emotion and plot. 

I am not one for planning. As I craft more parts of my project more ideas just flow into my head. As I write character profiles I instantly craft new ideas and create more pieces of work to manifest those ideas. I am a person who becomes more creative during the process of creating. Ideas flow into my head once I force myself to work on a story. As I wrote a character profile for my main character I immediately crafted a brand new character in my head that would play more importance in the story than most of the others. I wonder if other writers have this happen to them as well. My main character Jonas was going to be motivated in his quest from his own experience but then I had the idea of adding a mentor figure to help guide him on his path. I believe this will enhance the quality of my story and help explain certain parts. 

My director Monica Larson helped me figure out how to make my pages look well together with sprites and natural backgrounds. I am not an artist but with the programs that I have sought out I am able to make myself appear as much of an artist as I possibly can. With this project I hope to learn more about programs such as Adobe Illustrator which my director showed me to help my project. I have not touched Illustrator but I look forward to diving in the program once I begin production on the actual novel. 

This project is a gateway to a world of possibilities. With this project alone I am learning so much and acquiring more skills that I am able to use in the real world. I hope to take these skills with me and pass these on to many others just as my superiors and professors have done for me. I appreciate this opportunity I have worked for to be able to craft works and have others view them.

Sound Design Midterm Blog

Taking Sound Design so far has been an interesting journey for me. There are quite a few things that I have learned in the first half of the class that I could apply to a real world setting and it is important to recognize those lessons and put labels to them. 

The first lesson I learned is how to apply certain types of loops to a music project. I was unaware that garage band contained so many loops that could be applicable to many thing such as a song or a podcast of some sort. This is important for those who want to do sound editing of any time and are pressed for time. This means that if an individual could not get a certain sound effect on their own they could make use of the sound effects that come pre-installed with garage band. 

The second lesson that I learned is how to label parts of the track. Labeling a track’s parts is important to the creator of a song or music product because it helps the creator identity what parts contain what if the creator happens to not touch their project for an extended period of time. This also helps any newcomer to the project understand what the music track is all about. Meaning If someone new is helping out with the project they would be able to identity what part contains what.

The third and most valuable lesson I learned was the difference between analog and digital sound. Analog is more natural whereas digital is not. This helps in real life because if one were to help create a piece of music for a band then the creator would need to know the difference between analog and digital sound. The video below best explains the difference. 

  To conclude it is safe to say I learned quite a few things and I am excited at the prospect of learning

more in the world of Sound Design in the Communications field of study.

Game Design Blog #6 - Pokemon and Education

The Pokemon series is seen by many something merely for children to help them waste time. This statement could not be further from the truth. Simply walking onto a college campus one can see that the series is a hit for individuals of all ages. Many are sporting Pokemon t-shirts and game systems to trade and battle their Pokemon with. Not only are most adults wrong about Pokemon being just for children but it can be seen as a medium to educate children. The fact that the game requires basic math skills helps in that player’s must be able to use subtraction and addition to determine how much hp their Pokemon loses. Even in the trading card game these skills are necessary. 

The card game functions as a system where a Pokemon may deal a certain amount of damage. For example if a Pokemon has an attack that deals 10 damage to an opponent then the opponent must put a damage counter on their Pokemon. Each damage counter represents 10 damage. If that opposing Pokemon has 60 total hp and only 50 left then the player must come to the conclusion that their Pokemon is only able to survive 5 more attacks from that Pokemon. The trading card game has a target audience of children ages 6 and up. This shows that math is a skill necessary for playing the game and the player is able to pick up on these skills by engaging in this activity. Pokemon even helps children’s understanding of reading. 

According to a study conducted by Vivian Vasquez “there is a lot we can learn about how to support literacy development by watching children closely as they engage with such (certain) texts”. Vasquez also stated in her study that her “intent is to show the sorts of literate behaviors that come from children’s participation in and use of popular culture texts such as Pokemon. Pokemon is a prime example of how our society could incorporate popular culture with learning basic academic skills in the school environment. 

 

Resources: Vasquez, Vivian. "What Pokemon Can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy." Language Arts 81.2 (2003): 118-25. Print.

Anya's Ghost

I recently read an interesting graphic novel called Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol. Anya’s Ghost basically tells the tale of a Russian American girl named Anya who falls into a well and encounters a ghost named Emily. Emily travels around with Anya once she leaves the well and they become good friends. Little does Anya know that Emily has some dark secrets deep inside her. 

I finished the entire novel in one sitting and when you finish a novel in one sitting you know it’s good. Initially I expected a somewhat light story because of the cartoonish art style but what I got was a darker and deeper story. It shows that no matter how friendly your art may seem you are still able to convey a mature and emotional story. In the process of dealing with Emily, Anya starts to grow as a character and develop in a 200 page span. The reader doesn’t even realize how much Anya has changed until the end of the story.  

I sympathize with the main character. When I was younger if there was an Iranian person in my school my mother would always try to force me to befriend them just because we were the same race. Then I realized that we should be there for each other because we both know the struggles of being a different race in school of primarily white students. 

The story was a good read for me personally as it gave me ideas of how to condense an emotional and gripping story in a short page span. It also showed me that no matter how cartoony the art is, the story ultimately shines through. Originally I was put off by my own idea to use sprite art but after reading this tale I have no qualms or issues with implementing sprite art. I now have the techniques necessary to also have my sprites merge with my backgrounds to have them appear more naturally together. Ultimately I would also like to create a connection with the readers just as Anya’s Ghost did. If I could achieve such a feat then my story will be stronger and more interesting for all those who read it. 

More reading of other graphic novels similar to Anya’s Ghost needs to be done so I am able to gather more inspiration for my writing. Writing that connects with the writer is so crucial for a graphic novel as it resonates with the reader’s emotions and create a red string with the reader. The reader will then tie the string to their friends and acquaintances about the story they have read and some may accept it and some won’t. The goal of the writer is to have that red string that is tied to their writing become tied to everyone across the world. This is what writing is about.

Resources: Brosgol, Vera. Anya's Ghost. New York: First Second Books, 2011. Print.