Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

Presentation Transcript

Slide 1:

“Hello, my name is Amy Brockbank, and today I will be talking about research techniques and how

those techniques have aided me when researching two games; one classic and one modern.”

Slide 2:

“In this presentation, I will be talking about different types of research, and how I can apply that

research when looking at both classic and modern games.”

Slide 3:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“The point of this presentation is to inform you all of what I have learned about research techniques

and what I have learned from the games I have researched, by using these research techniques.”

Slide 4:

“When looking at research, I thought it might be a good idea to take a step back and look at the

basics of research. Research is a good way of finding out more about a particular subject or topic,

either by conducting your own research, or looking at someone else’s. I looked at 4 different types of

research for this task, so I could get a good idea of what both games are about. I also looked into the

importance of research in the industry, and found that research is very important within the games

industry, especially when creating new games.”

Slide 5:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“Here are the four types of research I looked into; Primary research, secondary research,

quantitative research, and qualitative research.”

Slide 6:

“When looking at primary and secondary research, I looked at the differences between them.

Primary research is research that the researcher has gathered themselves; it is first hand research,

whereas secondary research is research that the researcher has gathered from other sources; it is

second hand research. Examples of primary research include gathering questionnaires, and

examples of secondary research include information gathered from the internet, as well as

information gathered from books.”

Slide 7:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“I also looked at quantitative and qualitative research and the differences between the two .

Quantitative research is research that is made up of facts and figures, it is data that has a clear

structure, and is easier to put into graphs. Qualitative research is pretty much the opposite, it is

research that is unstructured, and is often presented in the form of opinions. This form of research

isn’t as easy to put into graphs and charts, but it is easier to present in the form of writing.”

Slide 8:

“Now, I will start looking at my chosen classic game, ‘The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.’”

Slide 9:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“When I was looking at this particular game, I used mainly primary research, which meant that I had

to play the game to get a general feel for the controls, characters and story.”

Slide 10:

“When researching this game, I played it on an original SNES console for roughly 45 minutes, so I

could get a rough idea of what the game played like. Most of my research for this part of the task

was done here, when playing the game.”

Slide 11:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“In this part of the task, I had to use mainly primary research, although I did have to look at some

secondary sources to find out how well the game was received, and the kind of review scores it

received.”

Slide 12:

“When doing secondary research, I found out the game was released on the SNES in 1991, and is

considered to be one of the bestselling games in the ‘Legend Of Zelda’ series. I also found that the

game was published and developed by Nintendo, although, I already knew this.”

Slide 13:

“When looking at the game, I looked at some specific elements of the game, such as combat, story,

characters, navigation, soundtrack, as well as some other features within the game that I pinpointed

that I thought were quite interesting.”

Slide 14:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“When looking at the combat in the game, I found that I wasn’t very keen on the combat in the

game. I felt that the combat was very repetitive , and didn’t work very well. I found that when the

player hits the ‘A’ button, Link attacks directly in front of him. I found this to be tiresome, especially

if there was a guard behind Link.”

Slide 15:

“Much like the combat, I also wasn’t particularly keen on the story of the game. The story of the

game is basically about a boy who sets off on a quest to rescue the princess Zelda after his uncle is

killed by the guards. The story comes across as a bit of a cliché , and seems overdone by today’s

standards.”

Slide 16:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“Again, I wasn’t particularly keen on the characters, as they all seem a little bit cut and paste. Link is

the quirky adventurer type, Princess Zelda is the typical princess character, Agahnim is the typical

villain, and Link’s uncle is the typical dead family member. I didn’t like the characters much, for the

same reason as the story.”

Slide 17:

“The navigation in this game feels quite nice. The player is given a map at the very start of the game,

which shows them where everything is in the world is, and how to get there. The map f eels

surprisingly big, especially given the age of the game, and the game’s limitations. The map feels easy

to navigate, which is a big plus in the game.”

Slide 18:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“This game also has a very interesting soundtrack. Due to the game’s limitations, the soundtrack

loops. The looping soundtrack is not as bad as it seems, though, as the soundtrack still sounds very

good even today, however, if the player is stuck in a particular area, the soundtrack can become

tedious, which is inevitable.”

Slide 19:

“While looking at the game, I also looked at other features in the game I thought were quite

interesting. I picked up on the game’s magic system, which allows the players to defeat enemies by

casting spells, rather than using the sword. I also looked at the game’s currency system, which works

in Rupees, which can be found in vases, much like hearts. Rupees can then be used to purchase

items such as weapons, to aid the player in the game.”

Slide 20:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“Overall, I think The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is still a very good game, although some

elements of the game have not aged so well. I quite like the graphical style of the game, as, although

the game looks pixelated, it still looks clean and fresh. I also liked the game’s soundtrack, even

though it can get repetitive if the player is stuck in a particular area. I didn’t like the storyline or the

characters, as I thought they were cliché, and I didn’t like the combat, as it felt a bit too basic, and I

found myself button mashing when facing enemies.”

Slide 21:

“Now, I will start to look at my chosen modern game, ‘Fallout: New Vegas’.”

Slide 22:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“When looking at my chosen modern game, ‘Fallout: New Vegas’, I used mainly secondary research

to research the game.”

Slide 23:

“Although I mainly used secondary research, it was important that I did some primary research and

actually played the game. Before I started this project, I put about 100 hours into the game, which

meant that I had a lot of experience with the game beforehand. When looking into secondary

research, I used a lot of sources from the internet, such as reviews, and trailers.”

Slide 24:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“While doing secondary research, I looked into basic information about the game. I found that the

game was released in 2010 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and was developed by Obsidian, which was

partly made up of former Black Isle employees, who worked on the original 2 Fallout games. So far,

the game is the latest to be released in the Fallout series.”

Slide 25:

“When playing the game, I took note of the same elements I looked at when looking at The Legend

Of Zelda: A Link To The Past. I looked at combat, story, characters, navigation, sound, as well as

other features I thought were interesting.”

Slide 26:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“When looking at the game, I found that there were many different combat styles the player could

use, 5, to be precise. The 5 categories are melee, guns, energy, unarmed and explosives. Each

change the way the game is played drastically, although, all combat styles use Fallout’s unique

combat system, V.A.T.S., which stands for Vault-Tec Automated Targeting System, which turns the

game from real time combat, to turn based combat instead.”

Slide 27:

“The story in Fallout: New Vegas is quite basic, although, I still found the basic story quite

interesting. You play as a courier who is shot in the head after attempting to deliver a package, who

then must piece together who killed them and why. I found that the story gets better after a while,

as there are many potential branches the story can take, which makes each play through completely

different.”

Slide 28:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“In Fallout: New Vegas, there are hundreds of characters; so many, that I can’t even begin to talk

about all of them. However, there are many different followers that the player can have with them,

who can help aid them in combat, and help raise XP quicker.”

Slide 29:

“I also looked at navigation in the game. The game is based in an open world, meaning that the

player has an opportunity to explore the world. If the player wishes, they can fast travel to locations

across the map, provided they have already visited them. This makes getting around the rather large

world incredibly easy; however, if the player wants to walk everywhere, fast travel can be ignored

altogether.”

Slide 30:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“One of Fallout: New Vegas’ more interesting points are its soundtrack. The soundtrack is split into

two sections, the licenced music and the ambient music. The licenced soundtrack is played through

radios and speakers throughout the world, and is made up of music from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s,

which is a theme carried on from the previous Fallout games; other than the console Fallout game,

‘Brotherhood Of Steel’, which contained music from artists who perform metal music. When the

licenced music stops playing, the ambient music starts, which is made up of music which takes much

of its influence from westerns.”

Slide 31:

“When playing through Fallout: New Vegas, I noticed many other features, such as the game’s

hardcore mode, which adds more survival elements into the game, such as thirst, hunger and sleep. I

also liked Fallout: New Vegas’ implementation of drugs and alcohol in the game, which temporarily

raises stats, but increases the risk of an addiction penalty, which lowers the player’s stats. I also liked

the game’s health system, which has a crippled limb system on the side. This system gradually

damages the limbs of the player’s character, which incurs different penalties depending on which

limbs are injured.”

Slide 32:

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

“Overall, I really liked Fallout: New Vegas. The gameplay is fun, and has many different possibilities,

much like the storyline, which branches off in many different directions depending on the player’s

actions. The world is large, and has many interesting locations to explore and discover, some with

intriguing characters to meet. The game also features fantastic voice acting, but this also brings me

onto the bad points in the game. The voice acting, although good, gets repetitive sometimes, with

characters having the same voice actors again and again. The game also looks a bit drab in parts, due

to the size of the game, and the engine it was built on. The game is also horribly buggy, with

graphical glitches making the game appear to look even worse, for example, when I visited one of

the casinos in the game, the courtyard was filled with stretched models, and textures that had not

loaded properly. Although, just because the game has these bad points does not mean that I thought

the game was fun and interesting.”

Slide 33:

“When looking at both of these games, I took into consideration the genre of them both, which I

identified as ‘action RPG’. I compared the two to put together a list of what works within the genre,

and what doesn’t. I found that having varied combat styles makes the game far more interesting,

and allows the player more freedom, giving the player an opportunity to build their character, and

make them unique. I found that in both of the games I looked at, soundtrack was also a strong point,

giving the world far more character. I also found that both games feature wide open areas that the

player can use to explore, giving the player a sense that they are actually making an impact where

they travel. When looking at the bad points, I found that basic combat makes the games repetitive,

Amy Brockbank

BTEC Level 3 Games Design

and often quite boring. I also found that the story has to be kept quite basic, to make room for all

the choices the player can make within the game, to stop it from becoming too complicated later on

down the line.”

Slide 34:

“After looking at both games, I then looked back on the research techniques I used throughout the

project, and how much I enjoyed using them. When looking back at what I liked about the project, I

found that I generally liked using primary research; I liked playing the games first hand, and creating

the questionnaires to get a look at the opinions of others who had played the games that I was

researching. There were elements of the project I didn’t like, however, which were mainly secondary

research techniques. I didn’t like going through the internet trying to find sources such as reviews

and trailers, and finding screenshots to illustrate what I was trying to say, when it could be so much

easier to find my own.”

Slide 35:

“Thank you for listening to my presentation. Any questions?”