Initial Ideas/concepts (Queens Project)

 So far we have decided on a theme for the queen project 'An abandoned school' we wanted to give the horror interior a freaky vibe by including kids toys such as teddy bears and tricycles. I think we will use natural lighting as the building is abandoned so there will be no electricity, light from the windows and the huge opening in the wall (from helicopter/bus crash) will create more atmosphere withing the building. This is a paint-over of one of the classrooms in the Queens building i did....

  
  I wanted to create a eriee atmosphere with the tables being knocked over and the lighting, however i know i have painted a light in but this is only a initial concept. I thought about giving a hidden message on the blackboard for the player to look at, this could be a clue on how to progress withing the level, such as a map to the location of a key? 

 We have all now been assigned particular rooms from the Queens building, i have chosen the playground and a classroom. Based on this i have made myself an initial asset list to give me a few ideas of what to put into the final concepts. 

Playground (Indoor)	Classroom
Climbing Frame	Black Board
Ropes	Desks
Hoola Hoops	Lights
Trampoline	Paper
Crash Mat	Teddy Bear
Basket Ball Nets	Posters
Rings	Chairs
Ladders	Books
Climbing wall	Windows
Mats	Rubbish
Teddy Bears	Bin
Vault Horse	Draws

The next task is to design a final concept for one of my chosen rooms so i can show the rest of team and discuss weather the mood, atmosphere and design will fit in with our theme.

Intro To Game Industry

 Considered by some as a curiosity in the mid 1970’s the video game industry has grown from focused markets to mainstream and leading to the employment of millions.

 Articles from ‘Game Industry International’ as you can see here http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-02-13-australian-game-industry-sees-USD1-16-billion-in-sales-in-2012.... suggest the recent growth in the mobile gaming is phenomenal. Telsyt (An Australian technology analyst) expects consumers to spend over $730 million on mobile games in 2013, up 18% from the $620 million total in 2012.

 Although mobile gaming is rapidly increasing in popularity, will it take over mobile gaming? A recent blog from ‘Original Gamer’ disagrees and so do I. With tablet and smart phone sales increasing and ‘Angrybirds’ becoming one of the most downloaded games ever, it would seem that it is taking over! However I do not believe the hype. See the following link….http://www.original-gamer.com/article/4204-Mobile-gaming-taking-over-Dont-believe-the-hype it

‘Oringinal Gamer’ quotes:

                ‘What is happening is that MORE people are buying mobile devises and using them to play games for a few minutes when they’re bored, and there are a lot more of them than there are console gamers.’

TIGA a representative of the games industry states that the UK employs 9,000 highly skilled development staff, 85% of whom are employed outside of London. 80% of the work force in game studios such as Blitz, Climax, Exient and Jagex are all qualified to a degree level or higher. Reading the following link gives me the confidence that I’m on the right path to landing a job in the industry.

http://www.tiga.org/about-us-and-uk-games/uk-video-games-industry

 ‘’TIGA successfully campaigned for changes to the R&D tax credit system.  In 2012, TIGA successfully convinced the Coalition Government to introduce a tax break for games production. This is expected to come into effect in 2013 and is estimated by Games Investor Consulting to be worth £96 million for the games industry over five years.’’

The above statement from TIGA shows the game industry should have a lot more to spend in 2013, which hopefully means game companies will be willing to employ more staff in the coming years such as 3D artists, Concept artists, VFX artists and environmental artists. I am currently working towards being an environmental artist as this is my preferred field.

Researching jobs in the UK, I realise how important my portfolio/show reel is. This is ultimately my CV. I haven’t started putting a CV together yet but I think this is the time I should be making a decent presentation of my work. Although its still early I can still put the best work I have done so far together and hopefully I will be getting better as the year progresses so I can always replace work with future work.  I think landing a job in the industry depends on 70% portfolio and 30% interview, also talking to a lot of third years made me believe a lot of companies will employ you on a like-ability factor, how you talk about your work and how well they think you will fit into their work force.