Independent Computer Games are games developed without financial backing of a video game publisher, and are driven by digital distribution.
Games were originally developed on computer systems, as it was the only available method, but recently, after the development of smart phones, numerous independent developers have created games in that medium, with the success of games such as Doodlejump (5 milllion), Angry Birds (12 million) and the massive 100 million + selling Tetris. Mobile games can also be distributed through Freemium, meaning the app is free to download. The Angry Birds series has acheived over 1 billion downloads sold for free on Android devices.
Many independent videos make money, having become succesful on a free download, through the sale of merchandise. You can purchase things like Angry Birds stuffed toys, and other novelty products.
Independent computer games are also played on social networking site Facebook. Games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars have 10s of millions of users, and are free to use, yet have numerous pay-for add ons. Independent company Zynga helped generate 12% of Facebook's revenue in 2011.
Minecraft
Minecraft is one of the most successful independent computer games ever. It's format and download (originally) solely on the computer has made it successful worldwide.
It was created by Markus "The Notch" Persson, and his small company Mojang.
It is a sandbox survival game, meaning that players can do what they want (sandbox) but still have to stay alive (to quote the BeeGees)
It has since been launched on 4 different platforms
PC
IOS
Android
Xbox
It has sold 8 million copies on PC
The have been another 4 million sold across other formats
It has never had publisher backing or commercial advertising
It is attractive to its users as it can be played in many ways; survival, creative, adventure, as well as single or multi-player
On 28th September 2012, Ubisoft announced that they were to spend £4million on marketing in anticipation of the release of Assassin's Creed 3. This is the largest spend on the promotion of a product by the developer, in a big push to up intake compared to the losses of the previous game, despite its 9 million sales.
This helps sales figures in an obvious way, the more people who see it across the TV, radio, advertising boards etc, the more people are aware of it, and then they look into it, find a large network of exciting "exclusive reveal" videos on the internet and get excited for the game, and want it when it comes out.
On Youtube, you can find a wide range of videos showing interviews and new features of the game. These helped build up anticipation for the game from fans, without revealing too much. This is a good way of promoting something as it comes at absolutely no cost whatsoever, but is a great way of building up excitement and draw in more people who preorder because they are watching the videos and want the game as a result. The videos have over 1 million hits each. As well as those, there are numerous trailers for different parts of the game, such as the new storyline, the new character "Connor", the new weapons and various others.
In total, across 4 consoles, there are 7 different editions of Assassin's Creed 3. The Standard Edition is available on Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita and PC. The Limited Edition, which includes various extras which come with the game disc, including a belt buckle and a large embroidered colonial flag, and is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. The Digital Deluxe Edition is available just on PC, but comes with various add-ons from past versions of the game, like favourite missions and a "Best Of" soundtrack. Available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC- the main 3 consoles the game is available on- are the Special Edition, the Join Or Die Edition, the Freedom Edition and the UbiWorkshop Edition. These each come with their own arrangements of extras, including exclusive lithographs, an encyclopedia and rare prints, among others.
This helps the franchise develop sales figures as collectors and "hardcore gamers" will buy a number of, or at least the most expensive edition. This helps bring in much more money to the frenchise, at little extra cost to them. It also helps the franchise establish itself as it shows the commitment from the developers and designers.
Development
Game engine - Anvil next; Can do weather cycling (random weather), Create crowds of at most 2000 , the world changes over time to do things like growing plants or making damage to buildings permanent. The characters in the game have artificial intelligence. In the crowds each person has their own personality, wind and water simulation is so accurate you use the actual naval techniques to aim at the enemy, when the character walks through snow his footprints are remembered for the duration of the mission. This shows continuing sales figures because the player wants to see how the game improves via the small details like weather and crowds. An example of this is when people pass by the shop windows.
Game design; Characters - The characters have stayed quite similar. The protagonist in each is a healthy thin attractive man who kills men via some fluent fighting style. Also the women in each game are thin, big breasted and appealing to men. However the way in which the protagonist moves is more fluent and smooth compared to previous games, like in Assassins Creed where Altair would only run left after stopping running forward. World – How one interacts with the surroundings and in the case of Assassin’s Creed 3 how the free running system works. This is evident when one runs free as Connor. Instead of the dilapidated buildings we start free running through trees and up cliffs. This makes the long time player want to continue playing as it shows the evolution of skills from the easy blocky buildings to the intricate branches. It also makes the player feel like they are achieving something as they have been playing through the evolution so they feel they have got better at controlling it.
Game Software - This is how the hardware is used. The software is the content of the game in its basics. This involves the graphics and how they improve. In Assassin’s Creed the graphics are ahead of its time but we focused more on the buildings and looks. Now in Assassins’ Creed 3 we focus more on the character and the background. An example of this is the first protagonist Haytham when he boards a boat. His face is uncovered unlike the previous games and we see how the better graphics affect his face. Also in the background there’s new motion (a sea moving or people passing windows). The long time players will wish to play the new game to see how the graphics have advanced.
Assassins Creed III has been distributd across many different platforms including Xbox-360, Playstation 3 and the all new PS Vita. This has enabled the game to be distributed on a much wider scale which allows customers to get hold of the game very easily. The marketing for the game shows an advertisement of the game and also advertises the fact that it is sold at the Game store.
The Game store itself has both a physical store and an online store. On the online store customers can order and even pre-order the game for bonus features. The physical store allows the exact same capabilities in both pre-ordering and buying the game directly.
With Assassins Creed III been a sequel in the popular Assassins Creed franchise, most local game stores and even some supermarkets now sell the game. This distribution allows the game to be recieved by customers in a wide variety of locations without an effort to find it.
Aswell as been sold widely throughout stores, The most common distribution for the game is online, not only can big retailers that have physical stores sell the game online, but companies like Amazon and Play.com are distributing the game widely because of their trusted customer base. This allows the game to be distributed on a huge scale for customers and shows how the game is getting to the audience.
When the game is ordered online the customer can either pick the game up from the store that they purchased it from or they can choose to have the game delivered directly to their home which allows the game to be sold to more and more people that can't get out to a physical store.
The franchise first attracted a younger audience with the first Assassin's Creed hence the rating was 15+ while Assassins Creed 3 is an 18+. The franchise has grown up along with the audience to maintain its faithful fans. This new game has been marketed as the perfect time to buy into the Assassins Creed franchise and has tried to widen its audience. You would expect the main audience to be teenage boys but the game is also popular with middle aged men that were the first generation to grow up with the gaming industry and experience all the changes from tetris all the way to this new Assassin's Creed.
The PSP version has the main character as a female. The target audience for this version is aimed more at females as they would be able to relate with this female. As a female it goes against the normal stereotype and instead the character is fighting and killing men. All the stereotypes are subverted unlike the other versions that follow the stereotypes. The game includes lots of different genres and because of this appeals to a wide audience. The new character is bigger, stronger and better at fighting which appeals to boys that are "obsessed" with war. Assassins Creed has captured the imagination of many people as the picture on the right shows.
The game will has been released along side other popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Halo and Forza Horison all competing over the same target audience so by widening this audience with the PSP, online gameplay and multi-genre. These aspects make it competitive in the market against other games.
The story starts with Connor. After Charles Lee informs a young Connor that he wishes to speak to the elders of his village, he returns to find the village burning, causing the death of his mother. Later, a teenage Connor is told by a village elder that the reason no one is allowed to leave the valley is because they are there to protect the Temple. After showing the wise woman the symbol of the Assassins, she tells him to leave the valley, finding Achilles Davenport, an Assassin, and convinces the elder embittered fighter to train him.
After collecting supplies to rebuild the decaying homestead, Achilles presents Connor with the Aquila, a ship Connor can use to patrol the Eastern seaboard. Connor soon is taken to Boston, where he is finally dubbed Connor Kenway, after Achilles' son.
As Connor learns the art of being an assassin he is brought into the cities of Boston and New York as well as a large open area called The Frontier. After being made a full-fledged member of the Brotherhood by Achilles, Connor sets out to eliminate the Colonial Templars. William Johnson is first assassinated after he attempts to purchase the land in which Connor's people reside on. Connor next targets John Pitcairn, who leads the British forces at Bunker and Breed's Hills. After he is dealt with Connor next targets Thomas Hickey whom Connor discovers is plotting to assassinate George Washington.
Upon travelling to the Caribbean and pursuing a boat, Haytham and Connor find Church and kill him. The two then travel to meet Washington. Here, Haytham discovers a letter revealing that Washington has ordered the removal of all the Indigenous tribes from the land as a number of which have supported the British. One of the lands to be removed is Connor's own despite the tribe being completely neutral. Connor severs his ties with Haytham and Washington and takes off to protect his tribe's village. Connor finds the village safe, but the wise woman has dispatched several tribesmen to turn back the Colonials sent to purge the village. Connor neutralizes them to avoid conflict, however he is forced to sacrifice a good friend mentally blinded by Lee.
Connor becomes torn in his mission to eliminate the Templars with the thought that he could possibly turn his father for good. Connor sets off to pursue Lee who has been disgraced by Washington and taken refuge in Fort George. Connor infiltrates the fort only to find Haytham. Haytham reveals Lee has escaped (with the medallion) again and he and Connor engage in battle. Now accepting that his father will not turn, Connor kills Haytham, who refuses to repent in the end.
As Desmond plays these events out in the Animus he is occasionally taken out in order to find power cells crucial in the process of exploring the temple. The efforts take Desmond to locations including Manhattan and Brazil. During these trips, he encounters Daniel Cross, an Assassin-turned Templar who was responsible for nearly wiping out the Assassins in 2000 by killing their Mentor. While exploring the temple Juno tells Desmond the events leading up to the first cataclysm. It is during one of these lectures that Desmond reveals that him killing Lucy was no accident and that he chose to after the Apple revealed to him that Lucy was a double-agent and intended to take the Apple to Abstergo.
Connor now pursues Lee again. After pursuing Lee into a burning ship the two come to a stalemate after falling through a section of the ship. Connor is impaled in his side by a piece of the ship. Lee asks him why he continues to persist even though the Templars only rise again and again. Connor replies, "Because no one else will", and shoots Lee in the chest. A mortally wounded Lee escapes in a ferry across the lake with a badly injured Connor in pursuit. Connor finds Lee in a pub taking one last drink and finishes the job by stabbing Lee in the chest.
Connor takes down the portraits of the Templar members in the secret basement and burns them, signifying the end of his journey. In addition, his return to his home village (shown before) is detailed further- upon arrival he spoke to a hunter that had been camping there, who revealed that the new U.S. Government had sold the land his village rested upon to settlers in order to settle war debts. He also travels to the pier in New York, seeing the last of the British Redcoats leave America for good. However, at this same encounter, Connor sees the beginnings of the slave trade present in the newly formed nation- right next to the pier of citizens cheering at the departure of the British there is a stand where a slave trader is peddling three of his "wares".
Genre
Assassin's Creed 3 is very much a multi-genre game. Fantasy, adventure, strategy, beat em up, sandbox, sci-fi, puzzle, stealth and racing. This makes the game very immersive and allows the gamer to explore and spend many hours completing the missions, collecting or just enjoying this virtual world which in this new assassin's. One minute you can be tearing apart some guards the next collecting collectibles. This makes the game incredibly varied and diverse. The game is mostly third person which means that the camera is behind the character.
Not many games have this multi-genre so assassin's creed 3 doesn't have many competitors and is different from other popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Halo and Need for Speed. The multiplayer int he assassins creed has been included since Brotherhood and has bee mostly successful. It is a different concept from the usual team deathmatch on most first person shooters and includes players hunting each other. The genre of the multiplayer is very much stealth and is popular for its inventiveness.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood was released in November 2010. It was initially released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, before being released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X in May 2011.
The game passed over a million sales within a week of being released, and in May 2011 its developers, Ubisoft, announced the game had sold over 8 million copies. In March 2011, having sold 6.5 million copies, the game had generated an estimated $390 million.
In 2011, he game took the Assassin's Creed franchise to over 28 million units sold, generating an estimated $1.8 billion.
The game had 7 different editions; Standard Edition, Special Edition, Auditore Edition, Collector's Edition, Limited Codex Edition, Digital Deluxe Edition and Da Vinci Edition.
The scene begins with a long shot showing the fighter's living quarters. They are very basic, representing a low standing and class. Also showing this is the clothes the characters are wearing. The fighters are wearing dirty, grubby robes, again signifying lower standing than the guards who is taking them to wherever they are going.
The camera then cuts to the wealthy, higher class people, sat in their luscious robes, playing with expensive jewellery. This juxtaposes the opposites, with simply their balcony being much better than the fighters' living quarters, as well as the clothes they are wearing and the props shown in the scene. The balcony is also more colourful. The fighters' living area is very mundane, brown and dark greens, whereas the rich balcony is colourful- vibrant colours such as pink and yellow, and a regal white are worn by the characters. This signifies a higher class and status.
The weapons that the black fighter has to use- a trident and a net- represent a fisherman, which gives the immediate impression of a lower class.
When the fighters first enter the arena, their robes are removed. This emphasises their vulnerability- they have nothing to protect them because they don't deserve to be protected. It again shows a lower class and status as they don't deserve armour or even clothes.
In the scene, the doors used are a big signifier of wealth and class. The fighters walk through a creaky, wooden door which hasn't been given any level of attention to detail. On the other hand, you have the guards, who when exiting the arena, use a proper, enforced, crafted door, which has had money spent on it. This shows higher class and status, as the fighters don't use this door, they are deemed unworthy.
There is a shot when the first pair of fighters are just being called out, which the editor uses to show the three levels of class in the scene. At the bottom are the fighters, in the middle, above the fighters are the guards, and above the guards are the wealthy people watching the fight. This is the only shot where we see all three levels of status together, and it does it well, showing them on levels of class.
During the clip, we spend a lot more time with the protagonists. This means we are more likely to side with them as we get to know them better and can see things from their point of view. This makes the audience dislike the wealthy, as they are of stark contrast to the gladiators we have spent more time with.
There is a number of shots where we see the protagonists at their worst- being forced into a small crooked hut type thing, or a body being dragged away, before the camera cuts straight to a shot of the wealthy people. This juxtaposes the opposites and makes us feel even more sympathetic for the fighters as the previous image is still firmly in our mind.
At the end of the clip, the wealthy man kills the black man. It is significant that the rich man delivers the killing blow as it signifies his power over the fighter, and his ruthlessness connotes a lack of care for those below him. At the end of the scene, the blood squirts in the rich man's face. This instantly makes us dislike him even more, as we find this image disgusting.
Towards the beginning of the clip, when the guard is leading them away, there is a camera shot from behind a cage wall. This connotes captivity and shows that the fighters are being controlled by higher powers. This imagery is later repeated with a shot through the black fighter's net, showing that despite them fighting in an open-ish environment, they are still in captivity and under control.
The introducing shot of the four rich people sat on the balcony is a wide shot, so we can see everything of them in one shot, and see their wealth and class in contrast to that of the four poor fighters shown before. The shot itself shows the four characters laid down, relaxed. This connotes almost a lack of care for what they are about to witness, which shows class and status because the rich don't care for the poor, don't care that they are about to fight to the death.
A lot of the fight itself is shown from the high angle of the balcony. Again this symbolises a superiority of rich over poor. This further emphasises that the wealthy are of a higher class and status than the fighters they are looking down upon.
As the rich are sat on a balcony, the camera is often looking up at them with a low angle shot. This connotes superiority and control over what is going on, suggesting that they are of a higher status than those they are controlling.
When we enter the arena with the fighters, the music becomes frantic. We hear the harsh tones of trumpets which build suspense. This represents the horror of the lower class fighters.
Throughout the clip, the fighters do not talk. Whereas whenever we are with the rich, a lot of the time they are talking. Often they are laughing. This emphasises class as when we are with the fighters, the music creates a very tense and anxious atmosphere, whereas that all disappears when we are with the wealthy people. They are chatting, laughing, giggling. The juxtaposition of these emotions emphasises the gap in class between these two sets of people.
The Locker Room was the title of our film. It showed a student running through different parts of a school in an attempt to find survivors of a mass murder. He finds what he thinks to be a survivor (in the locker room) who turns out to be the killer.
The brief was to film a short film showing a character enter a room, cross the room and sit down, before exchanging a couple of lines of dialogue with another character. The film should include example(s) of match-on-action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. Our film met all required criteria.
We planned effectively, spending a lesson and a half, as well as some time individually at home, working on the storyboard, script, music choices, as well as deciding our roles in the filming. Unfortunately we misplaced the script, although it was brief and all lines are said in the video so it isn't required. Below are images of our storyboard, which we used both during filming and editing, but didn't stick 100% to, exploring different possibilities, camera angles or transitions we found worked better when we had actually filmed them rather than we planned before.
This section shows the start of our film, which begins with the protagonist running around two or three sections of the school, before cutting to a shot of the antagonist. The antagonist is introduced with a medium, high angled shot, designed to make the character look weak, before cutting to a close up of his face, showing him laughing menacingly. This familiarises the viewer with the antagonist early, and makes us realise who the protagonist is running from, and we know who he is when we meet him. The storyboard depicts more shots of the antagonist before the characters meet, something we didn't include in our final edit. We felt that the same/similar shots could get boring, and weren't sure where they would fit in. Perhaps with screams in the background, followed by shots of the antagonist smiling and looking, to all intents and purposes, rather creepy, the film could have been improved. This image shows the protagonist running around schools, and checking a door. This is to show the viewers he is searching for someone/something- not running away from something. This is important as we know the antagonist is stationary, and isn't moving anywhere, so if the viewers thought he was running from someone, it could get confusing. The character is shown running down stairs. This is simply to give a different setting, so it isn't all running in a straight line. It also gives more of a sense of realism I think. The final edit followed him round the corner of the stairs, contrary to the storyboard. This, I must say, was an input of my own. I, as cameraman, felt there were too many stationary camera shots, and the camera moving could create a more frantic atmosphere, which I think it did. There were more running scenes, but we didn't storyboard them, as we didn't realise, without actually filming, that the running scenes came and went so fast, so we needed to add more in to fill time, but also to add a greater sense of realism. He wouldn't find someone after running in 2 or 3 corridors and checking one door. This storyboard shows the protagonist enter a room, demonstrating match on action by opening the door. Another example of match on action in our film is running around a corner. This was a late decision, as we felt the shot running around the corner went on too long, and it needed a new camera shot to keep the frantic feeling. The shot is a somewhat point of view shot, making us feel with, and side with, the protagonist. The antagonist is sat down, so that the protagonist seems bigger than him, fitting the metaphor if "the bigger person", also shown by the fact he takes up most of the screen- despite us only seeing his shoulder and the side of his head, while being able to see the whole of the antagonist without taking up as much screen. This scene demonstrates both shot-reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. The protagonist thinks he has found a fellow survivor, and without getting a reply to his question, picks up a chair and sits opposite him. This is where the 180 degree rule comes in. This part is the only major failure of our film. The protagonist picks up the chair, and due to mixed ideas of how it is portrayed, the camera shot doesn't work. Also the sound is not correct. He says his line and the sound of the chair means we cannot hear it, and it is important. As a result we had to pinch a section of sound from another clip, and place it over the other video. We had to actually use two separate sound clips, so the sound doesn't fit at all, and realism is lost as we don' hear the chair touch the floor. We should have filmed the scene again but didn't have time. The end of our film was designed to be dramatic and scary, which it definitely achieved. The music stopped at the pinnacle of its build up when the dialogue began, and again, my job (not that I'm boasting or anything) but it was just perfectly edited. As the scene ends, and we see the antagonist lunge to attack the protagonist, the screen goes black and the music kicks in loud and fast, creating sense of panic and fear. This works to perfection and is a great ending to the film. The ending is our best section in my opinion.
Overall, I think the film was a success. To say we had never used editing software or filming equipment before, to learn it all and produce a 1 minute 30 film in less than a week is a great achievement, and to the level I think we achieved is something. I thought our film was to a very high standard.
In terms of me individually, I felt I did a good job. In some ways, I slacked off my first job- to write the script. I sat down to write it but didn't know quite what to put and gave up quite quickly, without putting much thought and effort in to it. In many ways, however, I think this was a good thing. It made me realise that I didn't want to be that person, the person who the group carries and gets away with doing no work. I knew that I could offer something to the group, so when deciding roles, I immediately put myself forward for both cameraman and editing. The role of cameraman was shared, but I like to think I did a better job, selecting different angles and not being afraid of moving the camera or going off the storyboard a bit-which worked well, giving us good options and choices in the editing.
I think the editing was something we did fantastically as a team. Not afraid to criticise each others' decisions or choices, and all getting involved with our own ideas. As a result I feel the majority of the editing was done to a very high standard. I think the team dynamic worked well. We got the work done, but also had a laugh at the same time, enjoying it very much. It felt good to have freedom to do things without supervision, whilst we also knew we didn't want to be split up for the next task, so we did the work properly, to a very high standard, and did things numerous times to make sure it was perfect. I think it was the perfect work environment.
Recently, Mr Croft set us the task of, in pairs, watching an episode of a TV drama, and assess it on the various things we have studied in class so far. Click here to view the result.
The feedback from my classmates was:
More images required to break up the "huge wall of text", and more appealing than graphs, which make no sense.
Great terminology and detail, and did well to cover most topics.
Good images/diagrams but gets too text heavy at end.
More detail about character roles. Good work on signification and theories.
Good detail and explanation but could have more colour and excitement.
More visual and audio aids to add another dimension to it.
Very good explanation, good use of terminology and developed more than needed with the very in-depth graph.
Interesting mix of graphs, images and text.
Good detail and perceptive explanation of a lot of terminology
The general consensus was that we used terminology well and to good effect, and it was done in good detail. However, we could have used more images and perhaps made the post more interactive and entertaining. I think these comments are fair, but I think, with an assessment like this, it is difficult to get entertainment in there- when reading others I found it difficult to stay interested all the way through- although perhaps that was because I had read 4 or 5 similar assessments. The pair I thought did the best job was Adam and Liberty, whose assessment of Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks used amusing images to keep the reader interested and engaged throughout.
For me personally, next time we are given a task like this, I know I need to pull my weight more. My partner did a lot of the work, while I sort of sat there and offered the occasional insight. However, I think it is difficult. I dislike the idea of "working with someone you haven't worked with before". I think it holds you back, and when I am working with someone like Megan, who sat there and got on with the work, it is quite easy to slack. Say, if I was working with someone I am comfortable around, they, or I, would be quite happy to say "oi! You're not doing any work!" or to disagree with something they say or do. Whereas with someone you don't know, it is a bit awkward and there is not as much freedom and comfort. I accept that it is what happens in real life and you have to deal with it, but at this stage, when we are trying to get quality of work and the highest grades, it would be better to work with someone you know and are comfortable around.
