Wayne`s 10 Questions

1) I thought the assignments were fairly easy once you get started.

2) At first starting to create the 2 games was difficult because i had not used game maker before. But after i got into it was fairly straight forward except for the coding.

3) In the space invaders game i learnt how to create enemy AI that actually started to get harder to kill as the game progressed.

4) In the maze game i learnt how to create a variety of different levels,enemy picks up,power ups and more...

5) As for maths no, i did`t learn no maths but i did learn the GML a lot better.

6) When i did the maths puzzles i did not exactly learn any maths considering it was a maths game and i knew all the maths anyway.

7) I rate my maths a GCSE C.

8) I have got 6 GCSE grade ranging from C-B.

9) The maths was fairly easy throughout the assignments.

10) My opinion towards maths has not changed.

Unit 73: To Plan,Record,Edit and Apply sounds to a game.

Plan

My sound is going to be for a space shooter game, which means i need action music and a fast pace beat to make the player feel under pressure all the time when they are player the game. I will be combining the different sounds with Sony Vegas because that software is easy to use and is excellent to change the hertz,frequency,fading effects and more. I will be using this program because i had a lot
of experience with it and i can make the sound to the best of my ability.

Record

I will be acquiring my sounds from freesounds.org, soundbible.com and soundtrack.imphenzia.com because they have got a large variety of free sounds which are perfect for type of indie game.

MP3 Files

Edit

I will be editing all of sounds on Sony Vegas because the layout is simple straight forward and is to put merge multiple sounds together. After i had finished all of my editing i will be rendering it, then after this i m all clear to upload the sound files to my game and record with OBS then upload to YouTube, then I will Finish of the editing by rendering in MP3 file.

Final audio final for the background sound.

Final audio file for weapon.

Applying

Once all my editing is finished i will be applying my sounds to my space shooter game, i will intend to create a background sound and a sound for my players gun.

  Now I have added the sounds in to my game.

Video link of project with sound applied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGknPEvfjzM

Evaluation

Overall I think the sounds I created go with my I intended on creating a fast past up-beat sound for my background I have achieved that, the same goes for my gun sound for my player it is a simple laser sound which fits my type of game. To summarise I think I have kept to my plan and it has worked out pretty well.

Sounds for the project where brought to you by:

http://www.freesound.org/
http://soundtrack.imphenzia.com/sound-effects/
http://soundbible.com/tags-sci-fi.html

Assignment 3 Understand contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the games industryThe Division Full In-depth

Tom Clancy`s The Division

As i am starting this review of the diivison it is the 7th of march 2016 which is only 1 day away from the actually release.

The BETA hit an incredible number of online players.

6.4 MILLION AGENTS EXPLORED NEW YORK CITY DURING THE DIVISION BETA

22/02/2016 04:55 PM

Today, The Division Beta ended and we’re proud to share that more than 6.4 million of you explored the pandemic-stricken streets of New York City, making it the biggest beta ever for a new game brand on current generation platforms.

On average, players spent around 5 hours as an activated sleeper agent journeying through The Division’s open world. The Dark Zone proved to be particularly popular, with players spending around 2-hours in the PVP zone, with almost 50% of agents turning Rogue in the process. Fun fact: over 63 309 800 contaminated items were successfully extracted out of the Dark Zone.

Thanks so much to the millions who joined The Division’s Beta and started to help take back New York City. We hope you all enjoyed playing the game as much as we have enjoyed making it. See you on March 8 in New York City, Agents!

- The Division Dev Team

The Division sees you play as part of a civilian sleeper cell of agents that’s trying to bring New York back from the brink of oblivion. You must establish a Base of Operations, a sanctuary for the people, which will slowly bring back a sense of normality.

My hands-on session dropped me into the game at Level 4, tasking me and my two comrades (one other gaming journo and a very helpful dev from Ubisoft Massive) with establishing said base and then initialising the three wings – Security Wing, Tech Wing and Medical Wing. We had to find three key players: a virologist, the leader of the Joint Task Force and an ex-military man with unique knowledge of the city’s infrastructure.

Getting these three wings back online gives you access to all the missions and side quests around the map, which all fall into one of these three categories. These can be played through in any order, at any time. Just be aware that some might be too difficult for your character’s level.

These three wings also signify the three core attributes of your character, and are the pillars for the Division’s RPG elements.

This article is about the first hands on session TrustedReviews got to play with them was a dev or developer of the game.

Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/the-division-review#Pz8sgayBJ18jAhes.99

From their article here are there first impressions of the game.

First Impressions

It’s hard to get away from the fact that The Division feels like it’s been a long time coming. Announced back at E3 2013, it was originally due to come out in 2015, but was delayed until March 2016.

But thankfully, everything I’ve seen suggests that waiting time has been totally worth it.

The Division will be one of the games to define the gaming industry. Not only has Massive captured the essence of New York and created an extremely realistic and atmospheric mid-crisis city, but its lack of loading screens and seamless multiplayer will set the bar for all games to come after it.

Here is a quick video on all the enemy faction in the game

https://youtu.be/Ps1gOQyVOdI

Division Enemies Are:

• Rioters
• Cleaners
• Rikers
• Last Man Battalion

RIOTERS

Profile: Low-life thugs who took advantage of the situation to steal and kill.
Favourite weapon: Handgun, baseball bat

Beware of the thugs who roam in packs through the city. These enemies are low-life criminals, who took advantage of the fall of society to take control of parts of the city. Until you intervene.
Understand Contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the games industry.

CLEANERS

Profile: Firefighters who now believe the only way to eradicate the virus is to burn everything.
Favourite weapon: Flamethrower, submachinegun

Fight against the Cleaners, who wear hazmat suits and wield flamethrowers, set on cleaning New York from the virus by burning everything and everyone. Most of them are former firefighters who turned crazy when the virus hit, and now believe it is their duty to cleanse the world.

RIKERS

Profile: Prisoners who escaped from Riker’s Island prison who take their revenge on authority.
Favourite weapon: Shotgun, submachinegun

Engage with the Rikers, a gang of convicts that escaped Riker’s Island prison and who are now ravaging the city and vying for its control. All these criminals have a strong history of violence, and they now compose on of the most feared faction of The Division.

LAST MAN BATTALION


Profile: Mercenaries who took advantage of their brute force to take control of the city.
Favourite weapon: Assault rifles, sniper rifles

The Last Man Battalion is a private military company hired by Wall Street companies to protect assets during the outbreak. They consist primarily of veteran soldiers with extensive combat experience overseas. When the crisis worsened, the LMB was stranded on Manhattan. They are now taking advantage of their superior weaponry and training to take control of New York City through military force.

Now that with the enemies are delt with here are some very good reviews from others including company such as:

http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.com/game/en-gb/news/detail.aspx?c=tcm:154-103930-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32

• IGN
• Gamespot
• Time
• Playstation Lifestyle
• Rev3Games
• And more....

All these reviews are from when the game first got showcased back in 2013 at the E3

This game experiences lot of Day 1 bugs and glitches which caused players to loose in-game content items and rank in some cases, however after looking through the forums and can confirm that most of these issues have been fixed.

WHEN SOCIETY FALLS, WE RISE

Tom Clancy’s The Division is an online action-RPG set in an immersive & realistic urban open world.

Everything starts on Black Friday, when a devastating pandemic sweeps through New York City, and society starts to collapse into chaos. You are humanity’s last hope: a member of The Division, a unit of sleeper agents activated to save what remains.

WEAPONS & GEAR

The Division is a modern action-RPG: customization and proper equipment are essential to succeed. Defeating enemies will grant you new weapons, mods & gear sets, which will enable you to become more powerful as you progress through the game.

STRONGER TOGETHER

In the Division, you can explore the open world and complete missions all by yourself. But you can also team up with up to 4 players to defeat your toughest enemies. Use complementary skills & weapons to build the best team of agents.

TALENTS & SKILLS

Progressing in the game will allow you unlock special skills and abilities. You will have to choose wisely the ones you activate in order to adapt to the different situation you will have to face. In combat, use your skills wisely to get the upper hand and provide support to your teammates.

BASE OF OPERATIONS

The Base of Operations is your central hub. By completing missions in the streets of New York, you’ll contribute to restore medical services, technical support and security. Unlock new perks to develop your base and give survivors a safe place.

The Team at Ubisoft have a lot of Downloadable content to release to there fellow gamer here is a trailer on just that.

https://youtu.be/hKSeTDdVcjY

Here is a look at the year one content 

http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.com/game/en-GB/news/detail.aspx?c=tcm:154-241886-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32

Tom Clancy's The Division Minimum Requirements

CPU:	Intel Core i5-2400 | AMD FX-6100, or better

CPU Speed:

Info

RAM:

6 GB

OS:	Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)

Video Card:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 with 2 GB VRAM (current equivalent NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760) | AMD Radeon HD 7770 with 2 GB VRAM, or better

Free Disk Space:

40 GB

Space Invaders Type Game. Wayne assignment

Space Shooter Game

First step: Creating the sprites

I done this by using the game maker create a sprite feature it had a lot of useful tools to use such as fill, the shade of my colour and more during the making of my sprites i took in mind that i was going to  make a space shooter, instead of a space invaders type game to mix it up.

Second Step: Turning sprites into objects

To achieve this step i simply used the create a object feature which is in the game maker program to make the objects have the same skin as the sprites i just added the sprite to the designated objects so that the player sprite would be the same as the object player etc.

Step three: Applying Code

After i had all the objects matched up with sprites i started to add code to make my game come alive, i started with the "oPlayer" the first thing i done was to create the initial variables for it such as the speed,health and lives.

After the variables i moved onto a simple alarm code, then from this i added the movement code witch also including the "player from going out the screen" "shooting code" and the checking for death code.

Prevent player form leaving playable area code

Shooting Code

Checking for player death code

Movement Code





















Step 4: The Room

Screenshot of the game room

Screenshot of  the Game


This screenshot is showing of gameplay of the game as you can see there are 3 hearts which indicate your players lives.

Another thing is that you can see WAVE 1 in the top right this is because instead of levels i have decided to put in wave to make my game stand out.



Also the asteroids are on a random spawner which makes the game different every time you play it giving it something different.




Background

Just like the sprites and objects i have labelled the background with a simple name "bg" is short and easy recognize when editing.





The reason i had chosen to create this background is because i wanted to generate a space atmosphere so i decided to go with a black fill and went over it with white dots to do this i used the pen tool and it looked pretty good.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unit 73: Sound for computer games Moods,emotion

Assignment 1 - Understanding the use of Music within Games and the Methodology of Recording and Production.

Name:Jamie Marsh

Lecturer: Josh Rai

The Last of Us

The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 on June 14, 2013. An updated version, The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 on July 29, 2014.Players control Joel, a man tasked with escorting a young girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States.

The emotion with the "The Last of Us" is very dark,gloomy and mysterious, the author Gustavo Santaolalla has done this because he wanted to create the perfect sound for the apocalyptic action game. The mood he sets when the music is played is a very cinematic experience it generates a scene like your a person in this time zone, hunting, savaging and hiding. The.The perception that is brought into this track makes the listener feel like they are in this apocalyptic world also especially as the song build tempo.This track varies from loud notes to very delicate notes, I believe Gustavo Santaolalla intended for this because he wanted to represent the ups and downs for being alive in this time, however he could be digitally telling the difference between before and the aftermath of a wasteland. This sound track definitely features timbre in a few parts of the track at the beginning the listener gets the feel of a wasteland instant with the mysterious noises expecting the unexpected.


This song instantly creates a very foggy atmosphere what do I mean by foggy well I am saying it creates a unknown feeling, such as the creatures in "The Last of Us " and the toughness of Ellie she is a innocent girl who is actually very strong both psychically and mentally no-one would expect a 14 year to be able to handle the aftermath, but you would be surprised. the audio in the main theme is very in your face you mentally feel and hear all the sounds of a wasteland, it certainly brings the surround sound to full effect, also it brings in the 3D audio very nicely because the song is timed perfectly to bring the listener a very accurate atmosphere of being alive in the apocalyptic world.

Foley is certainly used in this track because Gustavo Santaolalla is a very free artists he like to create sounds from anything, for instance the artist created a very nice effect from nothing but the things in his bathroom this shows that Gustavo Santaolalla likes to use anything in his music and that is exactly what Sony done they provided him with the freedom to create the music and themes for "the last of us" the original development of the music created by Gustavo Santaolalla were usually made with random objects such as bin lids, tubes, plastics and metals.

This track creates one of the best game music, it draws the player in perfectly getting them involved with post apocalyptic feeling strait away both the intro and ending sequences are very straight forward, providing the suspense action the chills of  zombies chasing you and the safe part where the player has had to sleep to rest up to stop fatigue and discovering a safe house and getting relieved of security and tranquility.

As seen in the image above you can see that nature stills moves on with world e.g this giraffe is still eating the leaves as it would have done before the outbreak. Also the fact Ellie is stroking the giraffe shows she still has a child inside of her even though throughout the game she acts very strong.

The copyright issues with "The Last of Us" is that Sony paid Gustavo Santaolalla $250,000 to create music just for there game only which would mean the the author Gustavo Santaolalla could not use it for any other projects however Gustavo Santaolalla could of thought for the rights but I don`t know especially what happened. I`m pretty sure all the sounds and effects used in the creating of the main theme song are all royalty free because in the video "creating the last of us" you can see all the instruments on the floor and the people who helped.

The file formats for the "The last of Us" main theme are mp3,mp4. Also NaughtyDog would have used a Blue-ray to record their game which would have help a lot of space to give the director "" a lot of freedom when create "The Last of Us".

This track features a lot of multi-track system software to combine all of the different sound effects they could have used a mix pad which helps artists such as Gustavo Santaolalla to create the perfect sound from different types of sounds. Musical instruments also play a important role in the track because Gustavo Santaolalla enjoys creating sounds from any thing possible, as stated earlier he uses metals,plastics as well as ordinary instrument such as a guitar.

The last of us main theme link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97u-U0nvJM

Halo 2

Halo 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004,the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. A Microsoft Windows version of the game was released on May 31, 2007,developed by an internal team at Microsoft Game Studios known as Hired Gun. The game features a new game engine, as well as using the Havok physics engine; added weapons and vehicles, and new multiplayer maps. The player alternately assumes the roles of the human Master Chief and the alien Arbiter in a 26th-century conflict between the human United Nations Space Command and genocidal Covenant.

The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack for Bungie's 2004 video game Halo 2. The soundtrack was released as two separate volumes, released almost two years apart. Volume 1, released at the same time as Halo 2 on November 9, 2004, contains arranged instrumental pieces written by Martin O'Donnell and his partner Michael Salvatori, as well as "inspired by" tracks from bands Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin. Volume 2 was released on April 25, 2006 and contains all the game music arranged in a suite form.

The emotion in the Halo 2 main theme has a very sci-fi feel towards it, alongside this the start of the song it starts very encouraging and continues to do so all the way through I personally think this track is really good it can motivated you to carry on when you have a had enough. Another thing

The file formats for "Halo 2" main theme are mp3,mp4. Also unlike "The Last of us " the developers Bungie had a lot less to work with for example they could not record on a blue-ray like NaughtyDog had done with "The Last of Us" also this game will also have a had a lower bit-rate becasue the technology that NaughtyDog used may not have been available for Bungie.

The essence of Halo 2 is the frenetic combat and the way that plot-developing cut scenes pace it. Its game play has been significantly enhanced over Halo. The most noticeable is that Master Chief can now dual-wield weapons, enabling him to cut a swath of death and destruction through Covenant troops. The game's graphics and audio have also been improved, and the positional Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound creates a fully immersive combat experience.

Halo 2 main theme link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCxv2daOwjQ

Different Platforms Assignment (Caitlin)

Different Platforms and there specifications and hardware

The PS4 is designed to be the best console for players who like to experience high-graphical games without paying the price for a gaming PC.

All PS4 Specification and hardware can be fount here:

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/explore/ps4/features/tech-specs/

Setup Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A0J3ye4dKw





The Samsung  tab 2 is a portable device that enables users of all ages to play all sort of games forms puzzle games to action games.

All Samsung tab 2  Specification and hardware can be fount here:

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_2_10_1_p5100-4567.php

Setup Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxaJYaiIS50





The Samsung gold laptop offers a great performance for a low price this laptop would be ideal for a student or a elderly person, because it is simple fast and reliable.

All Samsung Gold laptop  Specification and hardware can be fount here:

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/pcs/NP700Z5B-W01UB-specs

Setup Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wloby4RA3As




This PC is one i brought a about a year ago it has not lost any potential, the device is still out standing quite for a powerful beast of a computer, this compact gaming pc offers great performance, without paying the price for a 1.5k gaming pc.

All my PC Specification and hardware can be fount here:

https://www.asus.com/uk/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG_G20AJ/

Setup Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVbstyIr_Lg

Unit 73: Sound for Computer Games-Understand the methods and principles of sound design and production

P2 Understand the methods and principles of sound design and production.
Exercise 1

Research and explain when you would use the following sound formats and why?

Sound file formats

Uncompressed

wav File

The WAV file one of the simplest digital audio file formats. Microsoft and IBM originally developed WAV in 1991 for the use within Windows 3.1. Remember the first time you heard your PC making ‘chime’ noises, and not just beeps? Well, that’s courtesy of the WAV file.

Without getting too geeky, the WAV was derived from the RIFF (resource interchange file format), which stored data in indexed chunks (interesting, eh?). Apple derived its own version of this file format in 1988: AIFF. Essentially, AIFFs are the apple equivalent of WAVs.

They work by taking an audio signal and converting it to binary data. To do this, a device called an analogue to digital converter (AD) takes snapshot ‘slices’ thousands of times per second. For example, CD quality audio records at 44.1kHz, meaning it records at 44,100 slices per second. This makes it capable of recording the entire audible frequency range of 20hz-20khz.

aiff File

The aiff is a file extension for an Audio Interchange File format. AIF is an audio format used by Silicon Graphics and Macintosh applications.

In Windows, the extension for this file type is usually AIF. On a Mac, the file extension is not needed but when present may be AIFF. A Mac file uses a Type and Creator resource to identify itself to the operating system and the applications that can open it.

AIFF is one of the two most common audio file formats used in the Apple Macintosho perating system. The other is Sound Designer II (SDII). Most CD writers can accept AIFF or SDII files interchangeably when writing a Red Book audio CD. AIFF is sometimes referred to as "Apple Interchange File Format."

An AIF file contains the raw audio data, channel information (monophonic or stereophonic), bit depth,sample rate, and application-specific data areas. The application-specific data areas let different applications add information to the file header that remains there even if the file is opened and processed by another application.

MIME type: audio/aiff, audio/x-aiff, sound/aiff, audio/rmf, audio/x-rmf, audio/x-pn-aiff, audio/x-gsm, audio/mid, audio/x-midi, audio/vnd.qcelp

au File

(AUdio file) A digital audio file format from Sun that is used on the Internet and can be played by a Java program. It provides toll-quality sound and uses the .AU extension. It generally uses the u-Law (mu-Law) encoding method, and raw u-Law files and AU files are the same except for the file header.

smp File

The smp file extension is associated with AutoCAD Civil Building Information Modeling (BIM) software for civil engineering design and documentation, developed by Autodesk.

The smp file stores sampled station list.

voc File

Files that contain the .voc file extension are most commonly associated with Creative Labs audio hardware devices. The VOC files contain audio files that are used by the associated Creative Labs hardware.

VOC files can contain audio clips, music files, instrument sounds and sound effects that are used with the associated hardware device. The VOC file format is a compressed file format, allowing for a reduction in the size of the audio file that is stored on the user's hard drive.

The Quartet software application has also been known to use the .voc file suffix for similar purposes. These VOC files contain audio files that are used by the Quartet program.

The .voc file format is also used by the ZX Spectrum software application. These VOC files contain tape image files that are created with the ZX Spectrum software.

Lossy compression

mp3 File

MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) is a standard technology and format for compressing a sound sequence into a very small file (about one-twelfth the size of the original file) while preserving the original level of sound quality when it is played. MP3 provides near CD quality audio.

ra File

RA is a file extension for a streaming audio file format used by RealNetworks' RealPlayer. An RA file generally contains audio data encoded in the proprietary RealAudio codec.

vox File

Dialogic ADPCM or VOX is an audio file format, optimized for storing digitized voice data at a low sampling rate. VOX files are most commonly found in telephony applications, as well as an occasional arcade redemption game.

Audio Sampling

How can resolution and bit-depth constrain file size?
In digital audio using pulse-code modulation (PCM), bit depth is the number of bits of information in each sample, and it directly corresponds to the resolution of each sample. Examples of bit depth include Compact Disc Digital Audio, which uses 16 bits per sample, and DVD-Audio and Blu-ray Disc which can support up to 24 bits per sample.

In basic implementations, variations in bit depth primarily affect the noise level from quantization error—thus the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and dynamic range. However, techniques such as dithering, noise shaping and oversampling mitigate these effects without changing the bit depth. Bit depth also affects bit rate and file size.

Bit depth is only meaningful in reference to a PCM digital signal. Non-PCM formats, such as lossy compression formats, do not have associated bit depths. For example, in MP3, quantization is performed on PCM samples that have been transformed into the frequency domain.

Explain what the following words mean:

Sample rate -Sample rate is the number of samples of audio carried per second, measured in Hz or kHz (one kHz being 1 000 Hz). For example, 44 100samples per second can be expressed as either 44 100 Hz, or 44.1 kHz. Bandwidth is the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies carried in an audio stream

Mono-Mono uses one, stereo uses more than one. In monaural sound one single channel is used. It can be reproduced through several speakers, but all speakers are still reproducing the same copy of the signal. In stereophonic sound more channels are used (typically two).

Stereo-This is usually achieved by using two or more independent audio channels through a configuration of two or more loudspeakers (or stereo headphones) in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing.

Surround-Surround sound is a term used to describe a type of audio output in which the sound appears to "surround the listener" by 360 degrees. Surround sound systems use three or more channels and speakers in front and behind the listener to create a surrounding envelope of sound and directional audio sources. The term surround sound has become popular in recent years and more commonly used since the advent of home theater systems. Surround sound can be either an analog or digital system.

Audio Limitations of Games Platforms

DSP – Digital Signal ProcessorRAM – Random Access Memory.

A digital signal processor DSP is a specialized microprocessor or a SIP block, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. The goal of DSPs is usually to measure, filter and/or compress continuous real-world analog signals.

File format (eg Mp3, Wav, Aiff)-Limitations
Unlike a bitmap image, a vector image is incapable of reproducing a continuous tone photographic image,Vector images tend to produce an unrealistic image and a more cartoon looking image.
Because a vector file has to load vector software and then open and calculate file paths it can be slow in opening therefore may be unsuited.Audio output (eg Mono, Stereo, Surround)

PCM –Pulse Code Modulation

Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, Compact Discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications.