Working with audio and video - while it does share many similarities in principles - may seem a step away from game design, until you consider game trailers. Advertizing games, especially in today's world, is incredibly important, and a fairly effective way to do so is by creating a trailer. The Mario Odyssey trailer released by Nintendo at E3 has over 22 million views, with the "music video" they made as promotional material coming in at 14 million. Of course, Nintendo isn't a gauge of how effective this form of marketing is for the average game maker, but anyone can post on Youtube for free, and even if only 20 people see it, that's 20 more people who know about your game, which could be 20 more conversations about it or 20 more copies sold.
Obviously demos are probably the most effective way to show off a game since it allows the player to experience a taste of the game, but that means that you want a completed, bug free section that they can play that out of context will represent and hype up the rest of the game. Thus, video trailers can be more effective for displaying games that take place in multiple environments that greatly vary, or for aspects of the game that are still a little buggy some of the time but will be fixed before release. Of course, this isn't to say edit the video to make it look like you have a non buggy game and then release something that won't even run, but it is saying it gives you control over what you get to show and lets you give the player a taste of the whole game's atmosphere rather than an in depth look at one specific moment of game play. Again, as stated earlier, distribution is also easier. People are more likely to view a quick online video than download a shady link in order to demo a game that they've never heard of. Of course using both methods in tandem is also possible, and probably the most effective route, although it may be a bit more time consuming seeing as you have to edit a whole video and create a demo, which most of the time won't end up in the final game in the form it was in for the demo. Whatever way you choose, advertizing is so important because game making is becoming extremely popular, and ads are the best way to prove to people your game isn't just another weird app store game that doesn't function. So talking about A/V, what makes a good game trailer? This article from Games Radar talks about some professional game trailers and the things that they do well. First, the author emphasizes that a good trailer sells the idea of the game, and doesn't waste time on anything that isn't going to grab your attention. In all of the examples that he uses, he focuses on how the trailer appeals to the target audience, again, only pointing out main features that are going to get that audience interested and not wasting time on smaller aspects that are still in the game, but just not the focus. I like his statement of selling the idea of the game, because that's what really makes people want to experience it. It values both the concept and the execution, which is really cool. I kind of hope that we get to create game trailers because I think it will only continue to be important in the game industry, even just as an exercise for solidifying a game concept.
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We just finished our audio editing unit in class, and will soon be moving into video. So, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the audio unit and see how the skills we've learned there will help as we move into video, and that's what this post will be about.
I can't say that I felt that I learned a lot of new material this unit, but it certainly did give me a lot of much needed practice with audio, because you need a lot of practice to be good at it even though it seems simple enough. Though I definitely still need more practice, I think I got much better at timing, which is incredibly important. This article lists other tips and tricks, and I think that these assignments really did help me get the hang of how to use different tools and methods, many of which are listed in the article. It also emphasizes understanding how different effects on the audio clips affect each other. I definitely had to pay attention to that, especially while working on the audio book project, so I think that the practice was very valuable. Now the question is, how valuable will it be moving into the video unit? Obviously the two are very closely related as seen in the abbreviation A/V. This article on common mistakes in video editing makes it seem like many of the basic principles are the same. It emphasizes finding cohesiveness, focusing on transitions, and trying to keep things as clean and clear as possible. In fact, two of the tips are even focused on audio. However, this also raises the point that in video editing you have to focus on two different sense coming together. You're still very focused on the audio, but now it also has to match a picture on the screen rather than just the picture in your audience's brains. This makes timing again incredibly important, as well as cohesiveness. Basically though it just seems like adding another layer on top of what we just learned, so I think in the end audio editing principles will be very valuable in this next unit.
This is a game that I had been very excited about since I first heard about it. Despite this, I had no idea what it was going to be like going into it, and I didn't do any research on it. I love the Animal Crossing series and I have a lot of great memories playing it, so I may be a bit biased towards this game, but overall I would say it has definitely met my expectations in most areas, and I have really enjoyed it so far. For a mobile game especially, I would say it's pretty great.
In case you don't know, the Animal Crossing series is a game series where you basically get a house to live in in a cute little town where you're trying to do chores and odd jobs to earn money to decorate your house and get clothes, and in some games, improve the town. Pocket Camp is somewhat similar except you don't have a house, but instead a campsite that you have to decorate to appease your guests, but once again, you are doing chores to get money in order to do this. You also do have a camper that you can decorate without consequence, which I think is a nice trade off. Another big difference is that in the main series, you have a set of neighbors that doesn't change very frequently, but in this game, which animals are hanging around different camp areas varies every three hours. Overall it feels very consistent with the rest of the series, keeping the cutesy style and general gameplay structure, though it is a little simplified since it is a free mobile game. I'd say that there are a few flaws with the game though. It's very difficult to design a campsite layout that is easy to move through. With all of the items that you have to make in order to invite new neighbors to your campsite, it's easy to suddenly have a very cluttered layout that can be hard to move through. This may just be a me thing though as I am earning how to have better, more open layouts. Also, though I understand why they did it, I'm a little disappointed in the lack of variety in fish and bugs (which are not neighbors but things that you catch). In the main games, a huge motivator is finding rare fish and bugs to fill your encyclopedia. However, it Pocket Camp, fishing and bug catching just becomes a way to farm for money or rewards from neighbors because you basically always know what you're going to get. Everything feels a lot less self motivated and more motivated by what the neighbors want, which is unfortunate because it detracts from that feeling of freedom that is so appealing in the main line of animal crossing games. I'm hoping that as I move further in the game that I will be more free to customize my camp the way I want rather than trying to appeal to the neighbors. Obviously, the game is doing very well for just being released, already being on the recommended page in the app store, as well as being played by a majority of my friends. I think it will probably lose popularity much like Pokemon Go did, but still be the kind of game that you can visit when you just want a fun little relaxing game to play. In class, we have been working in Adobe Audition to edit audio clips. So far, it's just been basic editing, putting clips together, cutting out parts that we don't like, and using some audio effects to create different sounds, as well as adding in some background music and sound effects. Obviously, sound is incredibly important to game design and all forms of media because of the way it helps immerse us and set the tone. However, I want to look specifically at the sound industry within game design, and see what that world is really like.
Unsurprisingly, this site claims that the most important things to get into the industry are experience and being able to market yourself well. For most areas in the gaming industry, this is also the case, but it seems that with sound design, prior experience may be even more important than in other areas of game design. This certainly makes sense according to this interview, in which Jaclyn Shumate talks about the demands of working in game audio. She says that long hours and crunch time are incredibly standard for the job and that it takes quite a bit of trial and error, but is rewarding. Thus, it would make sense that employers want to see dedication, along with just being able to see if you have rhythm and other such musical skills. Shumate also emphasizes the need for good communication and dedication later in her interview. This follows with this page about audio engineers which encourages having the aforementioned skills as well as musical talent, attention to detail, and a good understanding of emotion and mood. However, even then it can be tough because according to gameindsutrycareerguide.com the demand for audio engineers is fairly small. It also talks about salaries of audio engineers, saying they typically range anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 a year for those who successfully make it in the industry, depending on which position they hold.
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AuthorHi, I'm Abi, a DSA student who likes games, drawing, writing, and acting. Archives
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