Devil May Cry 3

The third instalment of Capcom's stylish demon blasting and slashing action/platformer franchise, it had the task of returning the series to the original's heights after the dismal second game. Did it succeed? Oh my, yes... in fact it far surpassed the original in every way.
Devil May Cry 3 is a prequel to its predecessors, and follows the struggle between Dante and his brother Vergil, both sons of the legendary demon Sparda. Vergil seeks his father's power, and it falls upon Dante to stop him lest the world be turned into a demonic wasteland as a consequence. Cue an adventure filled with slick gunplay, smooth swordplay, comic and cheesy moments, and a very stylish gothic look.
The gameplay consists of platforming, solving puzzles, and principally fending off hordes of demons. The focus when fighting is to show off as much as possible: mix up attacks, hit fast, and you can boost your meter from 'Dope' up to 'Stylish', therefore earning more points to upgrade your equipment and purchase recovery items. However, fighting stylishly and surviving is much easier said than done: DMC3 is by no means an easy game, far from it. It is likely to punish first-time players quite severely, and many boss battles are nothing short of 'hardcore'.
And there are 5 difficulty levels to top it off. Although a challenge is certainly a good thing, it is a tad imposing; however, the special edition version is more forgiving, and comes with the added option of playing as Dante's brother Vergil, who is fantastic to use although not quite as much fun as Dante.
The game was very successful, critically and commercially. And it deserves it too. It earns a 9/10 from me (10 for the special edition), and 9/10 for its target audience of 15+.

viewtiful joe

A japanese 2d side scrolling platform beat-em-up from Capcom which makes use of cel shading and 3d backgrounds. It's a short game, taking 5-7 hours to finish, but is easily enough fun to warrant replaying the whole game... and with several difficulty levels to unlock, it's always a challenge. In fact 'challenge' is possibly an understatement... the game is rock hard, something that has become quite characteristic of capcom. Hwever it is never unfair, with success rewarded for making smart use of 'VFX'... basically special effects. You have a gauge that allows you to put the world into slow motion, fast motion, or zoom in. It's intended to be like fighting in an action movie and editing it at the same time; in fact, the storyline follows the main character being sucked into 'movieland' and striving to become a superhero and save his girlfriend.
It certainly isn't an everyday game concept; it's orginal, zany, and funny, and a far cry from most EA releases. Consequently it didn't sell very well. However, it was critically very successful, earning many 9/10 ratings. I would personally give it an 8 for myself and the target audience of 12 and above, due to the short lifespan of each playthrough. The game was fortunately successful enough for a sequel to be developed, which I would heartilly give 9/10 for myself and the audience; it addresses problems in the original by adding in a level select, making the difficulty a tad more forgiving, and aalso has an extra playable character.
In summary, Viewtiful Joe feels retro with its 2d gameplay yet fresh, and is a must-play.

game trailers... movie trailer

And as a point of comparison, I should include an actual movie trailer: here's the original Matrix's trailer

game trailers 2

This trailer for Mercenaries 2 borrows more heavily from hollywood film conventions. Notice the mise en scene with multiple simultaneous shots, loud music that goes in time with the music, and dramatic words

game trailers

In today's market, gamers aren't happy with mere static screenshots... they want to see trailers to gauge how games look in motion. This makes creating trailers absolutely essential to make any game sell, whether it be gameplay videos, introduction fmvs... or even movie style trailers, using hollywood conventions of epic music, dramatic language, and short fast bursts of action.
Here is one example of a trailer.. not completely movie style, but makes use of bursts of action and epic music. Note the dramatic introduction of key characters as well.

My idea for the professional brief

I'd like to ideally work alongside the jayisgames.com competition (link further down on page), in which the idea is to make a flash game with the rough theme of an 'upgrade'. Of course if it's preferrable to keep the theme of a sustainable environment, that's also workable into my idea.
The character above is the protagonist for my game.. at the moment I've based him quite clearly around Nintendo's Wario as a homage to his 2d platformers, as I want to have quite similar 2d sidescrolling gameplay playing as an anti-hero, very much like in his games. However, if the design is deigned too similar, changes can be made in colour scheme etc.
The idea for my game is a comedy one: evil cats are dumping waste in the rivers and therefore polluting the environment (linking to the idea of a sustainable environment). Enter Benio, champion cat-fighter, to save the day in a side scrolling beat em up where the evil cats are gonna get punished. These cats become progressively harder, until on the final level you're expected to take down a lion or a tiger (haven't decided which, perhaps both). These cats are therefore upgraded over the corurse of the game, tying to that competition theme. However, Benio will also receive upgrades in his arsenal of hand-to-hand moves, eventually getting a motorcycle to use in his attacks, so he's is also upgraded to fight the rising threat. He fights the cats to protect the environment! I think it could make for a popular flash game with its sense of humour, so it would be aimed at an online audience. There would be a fairly small amount of blood to appeal to masses. For today, I'm going to make some more sketches of him and the levels he must traverse, and sketch some bosses, before pitching the idea tomorrow.

just because it's effort to type out...

I'm putting the link to the BBC article on game trailers here for future reference.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6902472.stm
:D

remake trailers: options

The options for these 'remake' trailers are quite interesting as well. Above are screenshots from each, it should be quite obvious determining which is which. I'll run through my opinions on each:
1. Space Invaders
The whole alien invasion theme is certainly perfect for updating, but will it end up as anything other than another generic alien blasting shoot-em-up? Nevertheless a possible choice, could create models on 3ds max. Or rather remake it in 2d with slicker graphics on flash. However you may notice on the space Invaders screenshot above, there is already a remake on GBA. But a change in graphical style could nonetheless make for an original 2d remake.
2. X-Wing
Certainly a good choice for the trailer aspect of this assignment, juxtaposing film footage with game footage for dramatic effect perhaps? However, the link to film here is a fatal flaw. A huge number of Star Wars games released since could be considered remakes, all with a similar cockpit angle as an option at least, and with steadily improving graphics. And importantly, all with similar set pieces due to there being a set amount of action sequences in the films. Remakes have been done before, so this doesn't really leave much room for imagination to me.
3. Shadow of the colossus
Epic game, epic soundtrack on confrontations; this is perfect trailer material. Hasn't been remade either, which is no surprise seeing as it was released quite recently. But what can be done with it, in terms of remaking? And it seems to me like it pretty much sets up its own guidelines on how to make a trailer for it, due to the nature of the game. (This reminds me though, I need to make a game log of this one haha)
4. Resident Evil
This is nearly exactly like the X-Wing idea: it's already been remade a number of times, but is perfect trailer material. However this one interests me more, and has more scope for an interesting, possibly comical trailer, as well as the obvious movie style horror trailer that comes to mind. A good thing to research for this one would be the resident evil movie trailers actually, as the focus seems to be on movie-style game trailers.
5. Pac Man
The final option, and incidentally the one I like best. Sure, Pac Man isn't something that translates to big budget remakes well, and it hardly calls to mind epic trailers. This makes it more interesting to me as a challenge though, and brings up scope for a comical trailer. An epic trailer could be hilarious for Pac Man, actually. Forgetting about the lame looking 3d Pac Man, I'd also enjoy making a redesign based more on the simple original graphic. I intend to create a few redesign sketches on flash for this.

new unit number 2: trailers

This is actually pretty interesting, although I was hoping the unit would be something I can relate more to the other ongoing unit. But I suppose you can't have everything. I'm a tad unclear as to how we're expected to create the final trailer without any actual game footage to use, but I can think of a way, thanks to a recent unit actually... the 'don't shoot jebb' trailer (mentioned a few posts below I believe) I created over christmas may indeed have turned out to be perfect practice.
I understand the unit is to make use of after effects and premiere (which I admittedly have very limited knowledge of, so this could be useful) but I intend to use Flash to create images at least.

new unit, ideas, gameplay

I'm gonna have to discuss this with Shaun and Dan, but ideally I'd like to try my hand at making a flash game for a flash game competition. It's similar to the recommended idea, but I'm not keen on the recommended one. Firstly, as we aren't given much time and are given another unit (which we haven't been told details about yet), learning to use the tools necessary for the recommended brief seems like an impossible task, as the programs would only be usable in limited college hours. However, if the other unit happens to teach use of these tools, then it is a feasible option.
Speaking personally however, I'm a much bigger fan of2d animation than 3d. I also tend to play more 2d games; plus I'm familiar with flash and can use it outside of college. And most importantly I have a rough idea of what I'd create for the project (judging by the competitions I've found so far) although this idea would require me to learn alot of extra code, which is my weak point. But that's a more feasible option to me than learning code and struggling with an awkward unfamiliar interface at the same time.
Until I know more, I've concentrated on games that would play most similarly to what I'd like to make; I've played super smash bros melee (in class), Viewtiful Joe 2, and Streetfighter alpha anthology, three games that play mainly in 2d, and are focused around combat. I've created 2d fighting animations before but not whole games; this therefore interests me. Of course the competitions have twists that need to be incorporated, but I don't wish to use these as the starting point; rather work out game mechanics first.
Hopefully tomorrow should clarify some things, anyway, before I get too carried away into one idea.

final major project

Thinking about relating it to my research project and involving role playing games, or perhaps role playing in general. But I also want to do the project on flash; unsure as to whether I should do it as an interactive game or as an animation. As an animation, I could spend longer on the graphics and quality. If not role playing, I'm also considering an anime style beat-em-up style. Still in the air at the moment, only definite point is using flash.

interesting competition links

http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=12

http://jayisgames.com/archives/2008/01/game_design_competition_5.php

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2005/04/21/bbc_launches_game_design_competition_for_kids.html

http://www.cs.hku.hk/events/2006/flashanimation.htm

concept art

To round it off...

...I put concept art into one file, and created a trailer for the game to advertise it. I also made a poster to advertise it, as shown above. If the game were to be advertised at a show like E3, if possible I'd scatter leaflets around saying just the words: 'don't shoot Jebb'. That way, when people found the booth they'd laugh and get a sense of realisation; the idea would be to get them laughing before they even start playing.