2.0 - Article/Journal Research

Journal/Article Research

Below are some websites that I use to help me keep to date on latest Gaming Industry News as well interviews from industry experts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdzNtCEUSfE&feature=relmfu
IGN Interview with Designer Director Cliff Blezinski about story and narrative of the Gears of War Franchise

http://www.podcast17.com/

Valve MOD Community that have weekly podcasts discussing level design and Steam/Valve news.

http://www.giantbomb.com/

Giant Bomb is an American Video game website and includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former Gamespot editors Jeff Gertsmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media.com

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/

Game Industry News including interviews with industry professionals on how to get your foot in the door.

In order to get an understanding of the field I want to research. I have looked into many articles and journals to see what other people are exploring. 

'The Hows and Whys of the Games Industry' by Sjoerd De Jong

Jong has been in the industry for more than 10 years and has worked on a variety of projects as a level designer in UDK. This book was an excellent read and he breaks down the different types of game companies explaining the good and bad points about each. Also he speaks of the amount of work required and each and how this can affect your personal life. It's been a great eye opener as to what to expect when in the industry and whether or not its the right choice in a career to gaming industry.

What has become apparent is that most research hinders upon 'the effects of' or 'how the player reacts' in a given situation. But I haven't really seen anything that touches on traditional art which can help aid in computer-based arts. Therefore, I think the purposes of my chosen are valid; there isn't much study in applying traditional-based techniques to aid in aesthetic qualities of game environment.

As many researchers have pointed out there gaming in the creative research sense is a young field only spanning about 20 years, so there is still many un-answered questions. The key topics I have seen are;colour, light and emotion of players. Many of the 'how' questions have been answered but not the 'whys' and this is it what I want to bring forward.

Below are some of the articles and journals that I have found to be relevent and some that I intend to further into as project develops

Effects of Colour of Light on Nonvisual Pyschological Processes. Igor Knez, University of Gavle, Sweden.

http://headspacegroup.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/knez-i-2001.pdf

Excerpt from Abstract:

'This study investigated the influence of colour of light comprising of 'warm', 'cool' and artificial 'daylight' white lighting. The study concluded that men performed best in warm and cool white lighting, while woman performed better than men in the artificial 'daylight' white lighting'.

Lighting in Digital Game Worlds Effects on Affect and play Performance. Igor Knez, Ph.D. and Simon Niedenthal, M.A.

Similar methodologies were applied from the last Investigation to conduct an experiment with 3 different maze levels (Hammer Editor) lit up in a neutral colour, red and blue. In conclusion to this project players who played through the level in the red light setup performed quicker.

Complicated Shadows: The Aesthetic Significance of Simulated Illumination in Digital Games. Niedenthal, Simon. 2008. ISSN 1653. ISBN 978-91-7295-142-6

http://muep.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/7525/complicated%20shadows_final.pdf?sequence=1

Simon 'explores the influence of simulated illumination in digital games upon the emotion and behavior of the player.' - Abstract. This is a lengthy journal but I definetly want to read into this further while conducting my research.

Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story. Nicole Lazzaro. President at Xeodesign.

http://www.xeodesign.com/xeodesign_whyweplaygames.pdf

This paper is of particular interest because it analysis the emotions that players feel during gameplay based on 'player experience research'. This will help my understanding of what players expect from games from which I can apply to my own level design.

Playing Research: Methodological approaches to game analysis. Espen Arseth. 2004.

ISBN 87-990066-1-8.

http://www.cs.uu.nl/docs/vakken/vw/literature/02.GameApproaches2.pdf

Like the paper suggests this is the number of ways that can be approached when analyzing games. Analyzing games will be a huge part of my research, therefore, I will be reading into this much further to make sure I am conducting my research in the most efficient way.

Dynamic Lighting for Tension in Games

by Magy Seif El-Nasr, Simon Niedenthal, Igor Knez, Priya Almeida, Joseph Zupko. volume 7 issue 1 2007 ISSN:1604-7982

http://gamestudies.org/07010701/articles/elnasr_niedenthal_knez_almeida_zupko

This journal goes into the theory and practise/significance of light and how this can be applied to create tension in games. Even though I am looking into colour, light too is a big part of the subject matter.