Legal & Ethical Considerations

What is copyright law?
Copyright gives the owner legal rights to his/her work and allows them to decide who uses it and who doesn't but copyright lasts for a limited time and if someone breeches the owners rights then the holder of the work is aloud to take legal action mostly suing.

What is libel?
the law on this means that you cannot print or take photos on something that isn't the truth so basically you cannot edit or "Photoshop" a photo to make people believe you.

How are female characters represented in games?
If the female is the main character she will be very athletic and flexible with special abilities or special training where as if the female was just a character then she would know how to fight but not have any abilities and have little to no training, but if the female was an enemy she would have good training and good strength as well as a skin tight suit.

Unit 78 Artwork

 

2D&3D Game Comparison

Mario Games

New Super Mario Bros (2D)                   Mario 3D World (3D)

 

 

 

 

 

Nintendo has made 2d and 3d Mario games for years but here is a comparison from the 2D version and the 3D version from 2 of their games.

The artistic style is almost compatible from both versions except the 3d version has had a better touch up with the graphics and has features like shadows and you have a better depth of the world but more realism has been used for the 3d version like the grass comes off the edges of the hills and the clouds look more puffy, also it is less blocky while some areas has kept there 2dish blocky effect like the side of the hill which is straight up with no curves or bumps and the blocks still have the corners on them.

The 2d version of the game is more of an 8-bit game while the 3d game would be 32 or 64 bits as more pixels would be used which also requires more memory for the bigger file type.

For the 3d version to run smoothly the graphics have probably been optimized so that it can load in quicker and use less memory on the hard drive and the RAM, but the 2D version might have been optimised as well so that it uses as little memory as possible for a better frame rate as this game was put on the DS which can be slow at times.

 

The images for the 2D game are quite simple so they would have been easy to develop them on any type of image creation program while the 3D game would have required more attention as it would take more time as well as more detail also only specific programs would have been used as not all image creation programs can support 3D image creation.

Gameing Styles

Military:

Call of Duty

Battlefield

Medal of Honor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Futuristic:

Halo

Star Wars

Planet Side 2

 

 

 

 

 

Gloomy:

APB Reloaded

GTA

Max Payne

 

 

 

 

 

Comic:

Borderlands

House of the Dead

Walking Dead

Dark:

Dark Souls

Resident Evil

Batman

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Roam:

APB Reloaded

GTA

Saints Row

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cartoon:

World of Warcraft

Saints Row

Minecraft

 

 

 

 

 

Simple:

Tetris

Packman

Minesweeper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pixel:

Minecraft

StarMade

Terraria

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simulation:

Sims

Forza

Tom Clancy’s Hawks

Pre-Production

Finance $$$

For a game to be made it will need financing as there is a lot of people and equipment that will be needed and that isn’t free but you will have a budget to work off of and it is vital that you don’t go over that budget else you could lose a lot of time and money into the production of the game also you need to make that money back plus profit which can be quick or take a while.

The equipment and software costs money to keep it all up to date and keep the equipment up to standards also you might have to hire out equipment if you don’t have it, also you’ll need people working on that game which those people will need to be paid else they’ll go somewhere else.

If you want to base a game from a real city or place you’re going to want an accurate drawing of it so you will also need to pay for transport as well to get your artist to this place.

Time

When working on a project such as a game you will need a deadline as you don’t want to spend forever making it because you need to make money on it and also the person financing the game wants to get their money back from the game so a reasonable deadline will need to be set.

Personnel

If you making a game you’re going to need a crew for lighting with the green screen or voice actors but what’s mainly needed is graphics designers and coders to put the basics of the game together as sound will be added later.

Facilities

To make a good game you will need access to facilities such as a sound room so that you can record high quality sounds and a green screen room for those cut scenes and the trailers that need it which will also cost money so you will need to work around that to keep up with your deadline.

 

Contributors

When developing a game people will help fund it with the expectation of getting their money back as well as profit so they are going to want to see prototypes of the project and also they will want a deadline as they don’t want to be waiting forever to get their money back but they do this with the expectation of making some profit on the game as well.

Locations

When making a game you may want to base it off of real locations which means you will need to visit the area that you’re basing the game off of to have a good idea of what building would go where etc.

The game watch dogs is based in Chicago were you can free roam around the city so the artists would have been sent to Chicago to have a look around and sketch what they see so that they can recreate it in the game that they are helping develop pictures of this are below.

 

Codes of practice and regulations

You need to stay within the law when doing most things even a game for stuff like copyright, age restrictions also health and safety, also you will need insurance in case any of your employees are injured at work or if someone in the public trips over a tripod you have set up while taking pictures for a game you are developing, or if a company thinks you are copying them and they try to sue you are covered from that.