Lights! Camera! Action!

      Hello again.

      So… I got some interesting things… well at least to me..
First off I just started Term 4 and this means that the team I am with goes into preproduction on our final project which hopefully will be awesome. We had a meeting with the head staff of the game design program about what we have circulating in our minds and it went fairly well. Things are good, we have some pretty cool ideas floating around in our head and I think we are smart enough to not to bite off more than we can chew. I believe Shannon (our team manager) will be getting us geared towards having a project website once we get some physical evidence that our project exists so be prepared for that.

   
    Ok… with my 4 day break I had between terms I had the chance to sit down and watch some pretty wicked crime drama movies (my favourite movie genre) Narc, Training Day, Street Kings, Mean Streets and The Bank Job. I found all of them to be pretty damn good movies. Now the cool thing about me watching these movies is what I found on Monday morning.. A video interview on the new Kane and Lynch Game by IO Interactive was released at gamespot uk and I gatta say it’s doing some badass things that in my opinion are adding to a immersive experience. The biggest being the Camera, it shakes like movies and doesn’t feel static or like the smooth camera that gears of war has. If you have played the first Kane and Lynch you will know that it does great homage’s to crime drama movies with its solid character design and great dialog… however the overall polish on the mechanics kept jerking you out of the experience. Right away it seems like a good post mortem of the project has been done to make it a better game.

   
    Kane and Lynch series has been under my radar for a while… There has been a movie in the works and apparently  Jamie Fox has been casted to play the white trash pill popping psycho Lynch… I personally think this is a terrible idea from a fanboy standpoint because its rather obvious that the character lynch’s aesthetics were based on the character Waingro from one of my favorite movies Heat.

    However… that being said… fanboy stances are lame and I should just shut up until I see a trailer or something… but if you know me in real life chances are you are going to hear me bitch about it so get used to it.
   
    Let’s go back to the point of camera… Camera is an essential part of a entertainment experience. Good examples of camera work in games would be God of War 3, Uncharted 2 and FarCry 2. I put down these examples because they are all completely different camera systems other however all work flawlessly. God of War 3 has no user control in it however allows the developer to push more art on the screen and focus on the exact game-space the player will be utilizing. Uncharted 2 has an amazing camera system for its third person action game; it blends almost seamlessly with ingame cinematics and almost never gets bad collision views etc… Everyone could learn from that game to be honest.  FarCry2…. This is a great example on how to do a first person experience… Not once does it break the first person view and it offers a great set of animations that give it that visceral feel. The only thing we need now is 3d glasses in aviator forms for our society to be complete.

    With all that being said let me break down what I believe other games should be doing. They should be taking these three styles and improving them with new techniques or having them on par with these games with the current technology that is out. This is why I think Kane and Lynch is a big deal right now… The camera feels dirty… it immediately just from trailer footage goes great with the realistic art style. I get a sense that there really is a camera operator right behind him… I am going to try and play this game in the theatre we have at the institute of learning i currently attend when it is out.

Well beyond that I have nothing really big to say left.. The newest As I lay Dying album was leaked out on the internet and so far is amazing I must say. Definite good buy if you are into metal ;P

Click here for a youtube of a song off the new album... Not sure how long this link will last tho.


Out

Set sails and burn villages.

Ahoy!

Let me be the first and only one to welcome you to my blog.

     My name is Jeff Johnson and I am currently enrolled at Vancouver Film School’s Game Design Program. I am about half way through and on the 4 day break between the 3^rd and 4^th term. I was raised and beaten in Alberta Canada where I first decided that the entertainment business is where I want to be… Games have been part of my life since I was a wee lad and I love them and hate them… They really can bring out the best and worst of people. For me the entertainment and community is what I got out of it being the positive. As for the negative I find them to be completely time consuming, expensive and annoying in the context of marketing.

    First off… I feel we should ditch the whole phrase “video –game”…. I prefer interactive media… Not only does it describe what game studios are trying to get at (apart from our wallets) but it also brings a more serious tone to the industry. I’m not one of these hardcore people who are “all about the game-play”, I for one just like to be entertained and am willing to pay to be entertained much like 90% of the population. (10% are just stealing it)…  I like to be impressed by visuals, story, abstract thoughts and overall design…. To be honest if you have read this far you have gone past what I would have probably gone because this is an ugly ass wall of text. Here let me put an image here just so I don’t get bored typing this thing…..

   You can do it Harrison!... ahhh yes. Images they really tie pages together I think. Well anyway... back to my point... I feel that games as a whole will change dramatically in the next 10 years regardless of what I write and whatever people can predict.... Why? Because no one knows the future.... did all the gamers of the early 90's have a remote clue of what had in store for them? No.... there was inventions in other fields that influenced the gaming industry such as the internet. As designers we shouldn't bottleneck ourselves into the game industry, we should be looking at films, manufacturing plants, space research, books.. hell the animal kingdom.... etc... The important thing is that we keep innovating and looking at ways to do it. Let's go beyond making games... let's make interactive medi(a)cation.


Ok... now that i got my craptastic rant out of the way... I will try to update this thing monthly if not weekly and if I don’t… send me an email or punch me in the arm if you know me in real life

Out.