1.
Indie Game: The Movie
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Indie Game, The Movie is a 2012 documentary film by Canadian filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. After two successful Kickstarter funds, interviews were conducted with prominent indie developers within the community, after recording over 300 hours of footage, Swirsky and Pajot decided to cut the movie down to follow the four developers selected. Their reasoning behind this was to show game development in the past, present, the game remains a commercial and critical success. Super Meat Boy developers Team Meat set out to do a game that harkens back to their own childhood video game experiences. McMillen talks about his goal of communicating to others through his work. He goes on to talk about his 2008 game Aether that chronicles his childhood feelings of loneliness, nervousness and he also sheds light on the level design techniques he uses, on how he teaches players to play without extensive tutorials. The development goes into crunch time, and takes its toll on McMillens marriage, and on the health of Refenes, Refenes also laments how he sacrificed his social life to get the game done, but expresses gratitude for his family being supportive of his goal. The team successfully delivers the game, but come release day, the game is nowhere to be found on Xbox Live, which greatly upsets Refenes, who predicts low sales as a result. The game does eventually appear on the marketplace, and doubles Super Meat Boys sales, the game eventually goes on to sell a million copies, providing a level of financial security to both developers. The development is troubled casting doubt on the future of the project, Fish himself admits to his perfectionism protracting the development, as well as losing perspective over time about how good the game really is. Similar to Refenes, Fish also notes that he does not see himself doing anything other than indie games. This causes Fish to suffer anxiety attacks over the course of the preparation. The Fez kiosk is set up nevertheless, but the show runs into problems, the players are unfazed and continue to enjoy the game nevertheless, Fish gives a number of interviews, and Jerry Holkins expresses his excitement about the product as well. The film bookends itself with Jonathan Blows opening monologue about how indie gaming differs by offering flaws and vulnerabilities, during the closing credits, videos of other upcoming indie games are interspersed. Indie Game, The Movie received a level of interest from the gaming community almost from its inception. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 93% based on reviews from 26 critics, with an average rating of 7. 7/10. G4 TV praised the film saying Indie Game, The Movie is definitely worth your time, and should be seen by everyone in the game industry on the publisher, developer. Aint It Cool News echoed these statements, stating there are victories, defeats, tears
2.
Video game industry
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The video game industry is the economic sector involved in the development, marketing and Monetizing of video games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and employs thousands of people worldwide, the computer and video game industry has grown from focused markets to mainstream. They took in about US$9.5 billion in the US in 2007,11.7 billion in 2008, sound cards were developed for addition of digital-quality sound to games and only later improved for music and audiophiles. Early on, graphics cards were developed for more colors, later, graphic cards were developed for graphical user interfaces and games, GUIs drove the need for high resolution, and games began using 3D acceleration. They also are one of the pieces of hardware to allow multiple hookups. Product and talent layer, includes developers, designers and artists, production and tools layer, generates content production tools, game development middleware, customizable game engines, and production management tools. Distribution layer, or the industry, involved in generating and marketing catalogs of games for retail. Hardware layer, or the providers of the platform, which may be console-based, accessed through online media. This layer now includes network infrastructure and non-hardware platforms such as machines, or software platforms such as browsers or even further Facebook. End-users layer, or the users/players of the games, the game industry employs those experienced in other traditional businesses, but some have experience tailored to the game industry. Some of the specific to the game industry include, game programmer, game designer, level designer, game producer, game artist. Most of these professionals are employed by video game developers or video game publishers, however, many hobbyists also produce computer games and sell them commercially. Recently, game developers have begun to employ those with extensive or long-term experience within the modding communities, prior to the 1970s, there was no significant commercial aspect of the video game industry, but many advances in computing would set the stage for the birth of the industry. In 1947 Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann filed a patent for a cathode ray tube amusement device and their game, which uses a cathode ray tube hooked to an oscilloscope display, challenges players to fire a gun at target. One of the first known examples is Spacewar, developed by Harvard and MIT employees Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen. The introduction of easy-to-program languages like BASIC for mainframes allowed for more games to be developed. In 1971 the arcade game, Computer Space was released, the following year, Atari, Inc. released the first commercially successful video game, Pong, the original arcade version of which sold over 19,000 arcade cabinets. That same year saw the introduction of video games to the market with the release of the early video game console
3.
Game design
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Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game to facilitate interaction between players for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Game design can be applied both to games and, increasingly, to interactions, particularly virtual ones. Academically, game design is part of studies, while game theory studies strategic decision making. Games have historically inspired seminal research in the fields of probability, artificial intelligence, economics, applying game design to itself is a current research topic in metadesign. Sports, gambling, and board games are known, respectively, to have existed for at least nine thousand, six thousand, and four thousand years. Tabletop games played today whose descent can be traced from ancient times include chess, go, pachisi, backgammon, mahjong, mancala, the rules of these games were not codified until early modern times and their features gradually evolved and changed over time, through the folk process. Given this, these games are not considered to have had a designer or been the result of a process in the modern sense. For example, the public domain games Generala, Yacht. Today, many games, such as Taboo, Balderdash, Pictionary. Adapting traditional games to become commercial properties is an example of game design, similarly, many sports, such as soccer and baseball, are the result of folk processes, while others were designed, such as basketball, invented in 1891 by James Naismith. Technological advances have provided new media for games throughout history, the printing press allowed packs of playing cards, adapted from Mahjong tiles, to be mass-produced, leading to many new card games. Accurate topographic maps produced as lithographs and provided free to Prussian officers helped popularize wargaming, cheap bookbinding led to mass-produced board games with custom boards. Inexpensive lead figurine casting contributed to the development of miniature wargaming, cheap custom dice led to poker dice. Flying discs led to disc golf and Ultimate, personal computers contributed to the popularity of computer games, leading to the wide availability of video game consoles and video games. Smart phones have led to a proliferation of mobile games, the first games in a new medium are frequently adaptations of older games. Pong, one of the first widely disseminated video games, adapted table tennis, later games will often exploit distinctive properties of a new medium. Adapting older games and creating original games for new media are both examples of game design, Game studies or gaming theory is a discipline that deals with the critical study of games, game design, players, and their role in society and culture. Prior to the century, the academic study of games was rare and limited to fields such as history
4.
Game art design
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Game art design is a subset of game development. It is the process of creating the artistic aspects for video games, Video game art design begins in the pre-production phase of creating a video game. The video game artists are visual artists involved from the conception of the game and they make rough sketches of the characters, setting, objects and these starting concept designs can also be created by the game designers before the game is moved into actualization. Sometimes these are concept designs are called “programmer art”, after the rough sketches are completed and the game is ready to be moved forward those artists or more artists are brought in to bring these sketches to life through graphic design. The art design of a game can involve anywhere from two people and up, the larger the gaming company is the more people there are likely designing a game. A games artwork included in media, such as demos and screenshots, has a significant impact on customers, because artwork can be judged from previews, Artists work closely with designers on what is needed for the game. Tools used for art design and production are art tools and these can range from pen and paper to full software packages for both 2D and 3D art. A developer may employ a team responsible for art production applications. This includes using existing software packages and creating custom exporters and plug-ins for them, Video game art development began when video games started to be created. When game development started the game artists were also the programmers and it was not until the early 1980s that art began to become more developmentally intricate. One of the first video artists who contributed more shape. Starting in the early 1990s art requirements in video games were allowed to increase greatly because there was room in the budget for art. Video game art began to be in 3D around 1994, before which it had mainly been 2D art design and this required the artist and programmer to work in congruence very carefully, in the beginning, due to the foreign nature of 3D in video games. As the hardware of video games and technology on a whole advances the ability to develop art for video games increases exponentially, in more recent years many games have developed a much more realistic art design where some artists choose to have a more stylistic approach to the game. There are some games that aim for realism, modelling characters after real actors, there are several roles under the art development umbrella. Each role plays an important part in creating the art for the video game, depending on the size of the game production company there may be anywhere from two people and up working on the game. The fewer the people working on the art design the more jobs the people will have to create the different facets of the game, the number of artists working on a game can also be dependent on the type of game being created. For most games there are roles that must be filled to create characters, objects, setting, animation
5.
Video game development
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Video game development is the process of creating a video game. Development is undertaken by a developer, which may range from one person to a large business. Traditional commercial PC and console games are funded by a publisher. Indie games can take time and can be produced cheaply by individuals. The indie game industry has seen a rise in recent years with the growth of new distribution systems. The first video games were developed in the 1960s, but required mainframe computers and were not available to the general public, commercial game development began in the 1970s with the advent of first-generation video game consoles and home computers. Due to low costs and low capabilities of computers, a programmer could develop a full game. The average cost of producing a video game rose from US$1–4 million in 2000 to over $5 million in 2006. Mainstream PC and console games are developed in phases. First, in pre-production, pitches, prototypes, and game design documents are written, if the idea is approved and the developer receives funding, a full-scale development begins. This usually involves a team of 20–100 individuals with various responsibilities, including designers, artists, programmers, Game development is the software development process by which a video game is produced. Games are developed as an outlet and to generate profit. Development is normally funded by a publisher, well-made games bring profit more readily. However, it is important to estimate a games financial requirements, failing to provide clear implications of games expectations may result in exceeding allocated budget. In fact, the majority of games do not produce profit. Most developers cannot afford changing development schedule and require estimating their capabilities with available resources before production, the game industry requires innovations, as publishers cannot profit from constant release of repetitive sequels and imitations. Every year new independent development companies open and some manage to develop hit titles, similarly, many developers close down because they cannot find a publishing contract or their production is not profitable. It is difficult to start a new due to high initial investment required
6.
Video game programmer
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A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall under the term of game programmer. A game programmer should not be confused with a game designer, in the early days of video games, a game programmer also took on the job of a designer and artist. This was generally because the abilities of computers were so limited that having specialized personnel for each function was unnecessary. Technology has advanced to such a degree that contemporary games usually boast 3D graphics. Nowadays, the term programmer art has come to imply the kind of bright colors. The desire for adding depth and assets to games necessitated a division of labor. Initially, art production was relegated to full-time artists, next game programming became a separate discipline from game design. Now, only games, such as the puzzle game Bejeweled, are simple enough to require just one full-time programmer. Despite this division, however, most game developers have some say in the design of contemporary games. Each aspect of the game can consume all of one time and, in many cases. Some programmers may specialize in one area of programming. The number of programmers needed for each feature depends somewhat on programmers skills, Game engine programmers create the base engine of the game, including the simulated physics and graphics disciplines. Increasingly, video games use existing game engines, either commercial and they are often customized for a particular game, and these programmers handle these modifications. A games physics programmer is dedicated to developing the physics a game will employ, typically, a game will only simulate a few aspects of real-world physics. For example, a game may need simulated gravity. Since processing cycles are always at a premium, physics programmers may employ shortcuts that are computationally inexpensive, in other cases, unrealistic physics are employed to allow easier gameplay or for dramatic effect. Sometimes, a subset of situations is specified and the physical outcome of such situations are stored in a record of some sort and are never computed at runtime at all
7.
Video game journalism
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Video game journalism is a branch of journalism concerned with the reporting and discussion of video games. It is typically based on a core reveal/preview/review cycle, there has been a recent growth in online publications and blogs. In North America, the first regular consumer-oriented column about video games, Arcade Alley in Video magazine, began in 1979 and was penned by Bill Kunkel along with Arnie Katz and Joyce Worley. The late 1970s also marked the first coverage of games in Japan, with columns appearing in personal computer. The first consumer-oriented print magazine dedicated solely to video gaming was Computer and Video Games and this was two weeks ahead of the U. S. launch of the next oldest video gaming publication, Electronic Games magazine, founded by Arcade Alley writers Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz. As of 2015, the oldest video game still in circulation are Famitsu, founded in 1986. The video game crash of 1983 badly hurt the market for Western video game magazines, Computer Gaming World, founded in 1981, stated in 1987 that it was the only survivor of 18 color magazines for computer games in 1984. The first magazine dedicated to games, or a specific video game console, was Tokuma Shotens Family Computer Magazine. This magazine later spawned famous imitators such as Famitsu in 1986, during the early 1990s, the practice of video game journalism began to spread east from Europe and west of Japan alongside the emergence of video game markets in countries like China and Russia. Russias first consumer-oriented gaming magazine, Velikij Drakon, was launched in 1993, there are conflicting claims regarding which of the first two electronic video game magazines was the first to be published regularly online. The website was updated weekly during its period from 1994-1996. Another publication, Intelligent Gamer Online debuted a web site in April 1995. At the time, it was called the first national videogame magazine found only online, Game Zero Magazine ceased active publication at the end of 1996 and is maintained as an archive site. Future Publishing exemplifies the old medias decline in the games sector, in 2003 the group saw multi-million GBP profits and strong growth, but by early 2006 were issuing profit warnings and closing unprofitable magazines. Then, in late November 2006, the publisher reported both a loss of £49 million and the sale—in order to reduce its level of bank debt—of Italian subsidiary Future Media Italy. This then combined with the move away from media outlets towards niche experts to create a growing market for bespoke games writing. This gaming coverage, rather trying to be objective, acknowledges that it is written from a certain perspective. Some outlets, Game Peoples social media for example, even use this bias as a selling point of their content
8.
Level design
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Level design, environment design or game mapping is a discipline of game development involving creation of video game levels—locales, stages, or missions. This is commonly done using an editor, a game development software designed for building levels, however. Level design is both an artistic and technical process, in early days of video games, a single programmer would create the maps and layouts for a game, and a discipline or profession dedicated solely to level design did not exist. Early games often featured a system of ascending difficulty as opposed to progression of story-line. The first game genre that required significant amounts of time to design areas were text-based games, often, promoted users were assigned to create new paths, new rooms, new equipment, and new actions, often using the game interface itself. Doom and Doom II were two of the first games to attract focused game modding activity, and many WAD level files were made for them, one of the reasons was a clear separation between the level files and game engine itself. Half-Life, Quake 3, and many games have notable mapping tools. In certain games, such as games, levels may be procedurally generated. In these cases, the game programmer controls how the variations of rooms and tunnels are formed. Level design for each level in a modern game typically starts with concept art, sketches, renderings. Once completed, these concepts transform into extensive documentation, environment modeling, a level editor may be distributed as a complete stand-alone package, at times, rivaling commercial 3D modelling software. There are various steps involved in laying out a map and these steps may vary dramatically across the different game genres that exist today. General steps include, Laying out the features of the map, such as hills, cities, rooms, tunnels. Specifying certain regions where certain gameplay activities or behaviors occur, such as harvesting, base building, water travelling. Specifying non-static parts of a level, such as doors, keys and buttons with associated mechanisms, teleporters, hidden passageways, etc. Specifying locations of various entities, such as units, enemies, monster spawn points, ladders, coins, resource nodes, weapons, save points. The first level of the game designed to get players to explore the mechanics of the game. Cut scenes may be triggered by events in a level, but require different skills
9.
Artificial intelligence (video games)
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In video games, artificial intelligence is used to generate intelligent behaviors primarily in non-player characters, often simulating human-like intelligence. The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence, however, the term game AI is often used to refer to a broad set of algorithms that also include techniques from control theory, robotics, computer graphics and computer science in general. Video game AI has come a long way in the sense that it has revolutionized the way humans interact with all forms of technology and this, for example, is true in first-person shooter games, where NPCs otherwise perfect aiming would be beyond human skill. Game playing was an area of research in AI from its inception, one of the first examples of AI is the computerised game of Nim made in 1951 and published in 1952. In 1951, using the Ferranti Mark 1 machine of the University of Manchester, Christopher Strachey wrote a checkers program and these were among the first computer programs ever written. Arthur Samuels checkers program, developed in the middle 50s and early 60s, work on checkers and chess would culminate in the defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBMs Deep Blue computer in 1997. The first video games developed in the 1960s and early 1970s, the first notable ones for the arcade appeared in 1974, the Taito game Speed Race and the Atari games Qwak and Pursuit. Two text-based computer games from 1972, Hunt the Wumpus and Star Trek, enemy movement was based on stored patterns. The incorporation of microprocessors would allow more computation and random elements overlaid into movement patterns, galaxian added more complex and varied enemy movements, including maneuvers by individual enemies who break out of formation. Pac-Man introduced AI patterns to maze games, with the added quirk of different personalities for each enemy, karate Champ later introduced AI patterns to fighting games, although the poor AI prompted the release of a second version. First Queen was a tactical action RPG which featured characters that can be controlled by the computers AI in following the leader. Games like Madden Football, Earl Weaver Baseball and Tony La Russa Baseball all based their AI on an attempt to duplicate on the computer the coaching or managerial style of the selected celebrity. Madden, Weaver and La Russa all did extensive work with game development teams to maximize the accuracy of the games. Later sports titles allowed users to tune variables in the AI to produce a player-defined managerial or coaching strategy, the emergence of new game genres in the 1990s prompted the use of formal AI tools like finite state machines. Real-time strategy games taxed the AI with many objects, incomplete information, pathfinding problems, real-time decisions, the first games of the genre had notorious problems. Herzog Zwei, for example, had almost broken pathfinding and very basic three-state state machines for unit control, later games in the genre exhibited more sophisticated AI. Later games have used bottom-up AI methods, such as the emergent behaviour, façade was released in 2005 and used interactive multiple way dialogs and AI as the main aspect of game. Games have provided an environment for developing artificial intelligence with potential applications beyond gameplay, examples include Watson, a Jeopardy. -playing computer, and the RoboCup tournament, where robots are trained to compete in soccer
10.
Video game art
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Video game art is a specialized form of computer art employing video games as the artistic medium. It may also include the creation of art games either from scratch or by modifying existing games, artistic modifications are frequently made possible through the use of level editors, though other techniques exist. Machinima is distinct from art mods as it relies on different tools, like video games, artistic game modifications are often interactive and may allow for single-player or multiplayer experience. Multiplayer works make use of networked environments to develop new kinds of interaction, machinima is the use of real-time three-dimensional graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation. The term also refers to works that incorporate this animation technique, artists may intervene in online games in a non-play manner, often disrupting games in progress in order to challenge or expose underlying conventions and functions of game play. Examples of this include Anne Marie Schleiners Velvet-Strike and Dead in Iraq, site-specific installations and site-relative gaming modifications, replicate real-world places to explore similarities and differences between real and virtual worlds. An example is What It Is Without the Hand That Wields It, video games can be incorporated into live audio and visual performance using a variety of instruments and computers such as keyboards embedded with music chips. See also chiptune and the Fijuu project, generative art mods exploit the real-time capabilities of game technologies to produce ever-renewing autonomous artworks. Edited by Matteo Bittanti and Domenico Quaranta, introduction to artistic computer game modification by Rebecca Cannon Backed up here by Rebecca Cannon Backed up here. Videogames and Art by Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell Journal of Media Practice vol 7, Art games archive with examples of artistic modifications Art games website with various examples of artistic modifications Art games archive with examples of artistic modifications
11.
Video game graphics
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A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances, some of the earliest video games were text games or text-based games that used text characters instead of bitmapped or vector graphics. Some of the earliest text games were developed for systems which had no video display at all. Text games are typically easier to write and require less processing power than graphical games, however, terminal emulators are still in use today, and people continue to play MUDs and explore interactive fiction. Vector graphics refers to the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, in video games this type of projection is somewhat rare, but has become more common in recent years in browser-based gaming with the advent of Flash, since Flash supports vector graphics natively. An earlier example for the computer is Starglider. Vector game can also refer to a game that uses a vector graphics display capable of projecting images using an electron beam to draw images instead of with pixels. Many early arcade games used such displays, as they were capable of displaying more detailed images than raster displays on the available at that time. Many vector-based arcade games used full-color overlays to complement the otherwise monochrome vector images, other uses of these overlays were very detailed drawings of the static gaming environment, while the moving objects were drawn by the vector beam. Games of this type were produced mainly by Atari, Cinematronics, examples of vector games include Armor Attack, Eliminator, Lunar Lander, Space Fury, Space Wars, Star Trek, Tac/Scan, Tempest and Zektor. The Vectrex home console also used a vector display, full motion video games are video games that rely upon pre-recorded television- or movie-quality recordings and animations rather than sprites, vectors or 3D models to display action in the game. As a result, the became a well-known failure in video gaming. A number of different types of games utilized this format, some resembled modern music/dance games, where the player timely presses buttons according to a screen instruction. Others included early rail shooters such as Tomcat Alley, Surgical Strike, full motion video was also used in several interactive movie adventure games, such as The Beast Within, A Gabriel Knight Mystery and Phantasmagoria. A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a game in which the viewpoint is taken from the side. Games of this type make use of scrolling computer display technology, in many games the screen follows the player character such that the player character is always positioned near the center of the screen. Sometimes, the screen will not only forward in the speed and direction of the player characters movement. In other games or stages, the screen will only scroll forwards, not backwards, examples of side-scrolling games include platform games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, beat em ups such as the popular Double Dragon and Battletoads, and shooters such as R-type and JetsnGuns
12.
Video game music
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Video game music is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was limited to simple melodies of early sound synthesizer technology. With advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and film scores, while simple synthesizer pieces are still common, game music now includes full orchestral pieces and popular music. Music in video games can be heard over a title screen, options menu. Today’s soundtracks can also change depending on a player’s actions or situation, Video game music can be one of two options, original or licensed. In order to create or collect this music, teams of composers, music directors, today, original composition has included the work of film composers Harry Gregson-Williams, Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer, Josh Mancell, Steve Jablonsky, and Michael Giacchino. The popularity of game music has expanded education and job opportunities, generated awards. At the time video games had emerged as a form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical medium in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes. Such components were expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use making them less ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases. Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion, an early example of such an approach to video game music was the opening chiptune in Tomohiro Nishikados Gun Fight. The first game to use a background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikados Space Invaders. It had four descending chromatic bass notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and interacted with the player, the first video game to feature continuous, melodic background music was Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980, featuring a simple tune that repeats continuously during gameplay. The decision to any music into a video game meant that at some point it would have to be transcribed into computer code by a programmer, whether or not the programmer had musical experience. Some music was original, some was public domain music such as folk songs, Sound capabilities were limited, the popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, was capable of generating only two tones, or notes, at a time. As advances were made in technology and costs fell, a definitively new generation of arcade machines. This was further improved upon by Namcos 1982 arcade game Dig Dug, Dig Dug was composed by Yuriko Keino, who also composed the music for other Namco games such as Xevious and Phozon. Home console systems also had an upgrade in sound ability beginning with the ColecoVision in 1982 capable of four channels. However, more notable was the Japanese release of the Famicom in 1983 which was released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985
13.
Interactive art
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Interactive art is a form of art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. Some interactive art installations achieve this by letting the observer or visitor walk in, on, most examples of virtual Internet art and electronic art are highly interactive. Some other interactive artworks are considered as immersive as the quality of interaction involve all the spectrum of surrounding stimuli. Though some of the earliest examples of art have been dated back to the 1920s. Since this debut, countless museums and venues have been increasingly accommodating digital and this budding genre of art is continuing to grow and evolve in a somewhat rapid manner through internet social sub-culture, as well as through large scale urban installations. Interactive art is a genre of art in which the viewers participate in some way by providing an input in order to determine the outcome, interactivity as a medium produces meaning. In interactive artworks, both the audience and the work together in dialogue in order to produce a completely unique artwork for each audience to observe. However, not all observers visualize the same picture, because it is interactive art, each observer makes their own interpretation of the artwork and it may be completely different than another observers views. e. More often, we can consider that the work takes its visitor into account, in an increasing number of cases an installation can be defined as a responsive environment, especially those created by architects and designers. C. When Zeuxis tried to unveil the painted curtain, the work takes its meaning from Zeuxis gesture and wouldn’t exist without it. Zeuxis, by its gesture, became part of Parrhasius work and this shows that the specificity of interactive art resides often less in the use of computers than in the quality of proposed situations and the Others involvement in the process of sensemaking. Nevertheless, computers and real time computing made the task easier, some of the earliest examples of interactive art were created as early as the 1920s. An example is Marcel Duchamp’s piece named Rotary Glass Plates, the artwork required the viewer to turn on the machine and stand at a distance of one meter in order to see an optical illusion. The present idea of art began to flourish more in the 1960s for partly political reasons. At the time, many found it inappropriate for artists to carry the only creative power within their works. Those artists who held this view wanted to give the audience their own part of creative process. Aside from the view, it was also current wisdom that interaction. In the 1970s artists began to use new technology such as video and satellites to experiment with live performances and interactions through the direct broadcast of video, Interactive art became a large phenomenon due to the advent of computer based interactivity in the 1990s
14.
Interactive movie
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In modern times, the term also refers to games that have a larger emphasis on story/presentation than on gameplay. This genre came about with the invention of laserdiscs and laserdisc players, thus, interactive movies were animated or filmed with real actors like movies, and followed a main storyline. Alternative scenes were filmed to be triggered after wrong actions of the player, when in danger, the player was to decide which move or action, or combination to choose. If they chose the move, they would see a lose a life scene. There was only one possible successful storyline in Dragons Lair, the activity the user had was to choose or guess the move the designers intended them to make. Despite the lack of interactivity, Dragons Lair was very popular, much as a Choose Your Own Adventure book might say If you turn left, go to page 7. Because laserdisc players of the day were not robust enough to handle the constant wear placed on them by constant arcade use, the first example of interactive cinema was Kinoautomat, which was written and directed by Radúz Činčera. This movie was first screened at Expo 67 in Montreal and this film was produced before the invention of the laserdisc or similar technology, so a live moderator appeared on stage at certain points to ask the audience to choose between two scenes. The chosen scene would play following an audience vote, in the 1970s, Kasco released a hit electro-mechanical arcade game with live-action FMV, projecting car footage filmed by Toei. An early attempt to combine random access video with computer games was Rollercoaster, written in BASIC for the Apple II by David Lubar for David H. Ahl and this was a text adventure that could trigger a laserdisc player to play portions of the feature film Rollercoaster. Developed in 1982, it was unveiled at the 1982 AMOA show in Chicago, however, the game that popularized the genre in the United States was Dragons Lair, animated by Don Bluth and released by Cinematronics shortly after. Around the same time, the laserdisc games Begas Battle and Cliff Hanger were also released, several laserdisc games added their own innovations to the genre. Space Ace, another Don Bluth animated game released by Cinematronics the following year, because Dragons Lair and Space Ace were immensely popular, they spawned a deluge of sequels and similar laserdisc games, despite the astronomical cost of the animation. To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from anime that were obscure to American audiences of the day. One such early example was Sterns Cliff Hanger, a 1983 game released around the time which used footage from the Lupin III movies Castle of Cagliostro. Years later, this would become the standard approach to video game storytelling, Begas Battle also featured a branching storyline. In 1987, the game Night Trap, featuring video, was created for Hasbros Control-Vision video game system. When Hasbro discontinued production of Control-Vision, the footage was placed into archive until it was purchased in 1991 by the founders of Digital Pictures, Digital Pictures ported Night Trap to the Sega CD platform, releasing it in 1992
15.
Nonviolent video game
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Nonviolent video games are video games characterized by little or no violence. The purposes behind the development of the nonviolent genre are primarily reactionary in nature, the popularity of violent video games and increases in youth violence have led to much research into the degree to which video games may be blamed for societally negative behaviors. Despite the inconclusive nature of the results, a number of groups have rejected violent video games as offensive and have promoted the development of non-violent alternatives. The existence of a market for such games has in turn led to the manufacture, Video game reviewers have additionally identified a number of games belonging to traditionally violent gameplay genres as nonviolent in comparison to a typical game from the violent genre. Despite the fact some of these games contain mild violence. Controversies surrounding the negative influences of video games are nearly as old as the medium itself. In 1964, Marshall McLuhan, a media theorist, suggested in his book, Understanding Media, The Extensions of Man. The same year, Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, had suggested that games had no merit, despite early general claims of the negative effects of video games, however, effects of these concerns were relatively minor prior to the early 1990s. Discussion of the impact of violence in video games came as early as 1976s Death Race arcade game, in the 1980s titles such as Exidys Chiller, Namcos Splatterhouse and Midways Narc raised concerns about video game violence in the arcade. Home games such as Palaces Barbarian featured the ability to decapitate opponents and it was not until graphic capabilities increased and a wave of new ultra-violent titles were released in the early 1990s that the mainstream news began to pay significant attention to the phenomenon. Despite this, the controversies and debate have persisted, and this has been the catalyst for the emergence of the non-violent video game genre, non-violent video games are defined in the negative by a Modus tollendo ponens disjunctive argument. In other words, in order to recognize a non-violent game and this has led to a degree of ambiguity in the term as it relies upon a definition of violence which for different identifiers may mean different things. In general, violence may be placed into at least three categories, Totally non-violent games - Games in which absolutely no violence occurs. Children who had the games in their classroom showed more progress in math, reading comprehension, the history of video game development shares approximate contemporaneity with media violence research in general. In the early 1960, studies were conducted on the effects of violence in cartoons, however recent scholarship has suggested that social cognitive theories of aggression are outdated and should be retired. One difference between video games and television which nearly all media violence studies recognize is that games are primarily interactive while television is primarily passive in nature. Acknowledgment of the fact that, for better or worse, video games are likely to remain a part of society has led to a brace of comparative studies between violent games and non-violent games. As technology has advanced, such studies have adapted to include the effects of violent games, results have varied, with some research indicating correlation between violence in video games and violence in players of the games, and other research indicating minimal if any relationship
16.
Advertising in video games
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Advertising using games is a long-standing practice in the video game industry. Various methods have used to integrate advertising into video games to advertise products. The advergames sector reached $207 million in 2007, some companies and organizations expressly commission video games to promote a product or service. These games have referred to as advergames a term that was coined in January 2000 by Anthony Giallourakis. Advergames theoretically promote repeated traffic to websites and reinforce brands, users choosing to register to be eligible for prizes can help marketers collect customer data. Gamers may also invite their friends to participate, which could assist promotion by word of mouth, Games for advertising are sometimes classified as a type of serious game, as these games have a strong educational or training purpose other than pure entertainment. Other methods of advertising in games include product placement being integrated into in-game environments. Another video game advertising technique consists of advertising within a game itself, since the intent of in-game advertising is typically commercial rather than political, some consider such advertisements to make up a category of their own. In-game advertising is similar to subtle advertising in films, where the content is within the world of the movie. Examples include billboards advertising for Bawls energy drink in Fallout, Brotherhood of Steel, the principal advantage of product placement in in-games advertising is visibility and notoriety. For advertisers an ad may be displayed multiple times and a game may provide an opportunity to ally a products brand image with the image of the game, such examples include the use Sobe drink in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Double Agent. For some players, digital games are one of their forms of media consumption. Game playing is considered active media consumption, providing for unique opportunities for advertisers, while product placement in film and television is fairly common, this type of in-game advertising has only recently become common in games. The effectiveness of advertising is debated by several scholars. Yang et al. found some types of recognition were low among college students, grace and Coyle found that 35% of players could recall advertised brands in a controlled study of car racing games. Examples of advergames include promotional software, the games themselves usually feature the companys products prominently. These games may consist of reworked arcade classics or original programming, the earliest custom video games featuring integrated brand messages were developed in the era before substantial penetration of the World Wide Web and were distributed on floppy disk. These games were typically of a higher quality than the modern games and were distributed for free
17.
Art game
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An art game is a work of interactive new media digital software art as well as a member of the art game subgenre of the serious video game. Art games are interactive and the result of artistic intent by the party offering the piece for consideration and they also typically go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic beauty or complexity in design. Modified games created for artistic purposes are referred to as video game art. Art games are considered a means of demonstrating video games as works of art. A definition of the art game was first proposed by Professor Tiffany Holmes in her 2003 paper for the Melbourne DAC Conference, current Trends in the Art Game Genre. Art games are always interactive—and that interactivity is based on the needs of competing Art games explore the game format primarily as a new mode for structuring narrative, cultural critique. In an 2015 article, Columbian video game theorist Carlos Díaz placed importance on the experience as an integral aspect of the art game. This experience can pertain to a variety of avenues, but it transcends the medium. Within the topic of the art game, further subdivisions have been proposed, in her 2003 paper, Holmes identified two common art game types as the feminist art game, and the retro-styled art game. She proposed two different categorical schemes to further subdivide the genre by theme and by type, subdividing by type, Stalker identified the art mod, the physical manifestation art game, machinima, and 3D real-time game. Distinctions are drawn in describing the art game as a genre compared to video game genres. Rather than describing the game on a level, descriptions focus on the artistic intent. There are several recent instances of video games that involve the characteristics of art games, such as Braid. Games like these arent necessarily created or marketed under the classification of art game, the potentials and limitations of the medium are increasingly discovered as the video game industry develops, therefore resulting in the recent popularity of art game elements. If nothing else, the genre can be seen as a means to push the medium to its conceptual limit, at the core of the matter lies an intersection between art and the video game. This has led to the drawing of a number of distinctions between the art game and the various kinds of game art. This difference has been described by Justin McElroy of Joystiq as the same between a sculpture and a building, though a building/game can be aesthetically pleasing, an art game/sculpture is using its very structure to produce some kind of reaction. This same comparison has been used by Jenova Chen in an interview discussing art games, thus the game portion of game art is merely the means to an artistic end
18.
Exergaming
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Fitness game, exergaming or exer-gaming, or gamercising is a term used for video games that are also a form of exercise. Exergaming relies on technology that tracks body movement or reaction, the genre has been credited with upending the stereotype of gaming as a sedentary activity, and promoting an active lifestyle. Research indicates that exergames can produce real improvements in fitness, Exergames are seen as evolving from technology changes aimed at making video games more fun. Konamis Dance Dance Revolution was cited as one of the first major successes of exergaming, by June 2009, health games were generating revenues of $2 billion, largely due to Wii Fits 18.22 million sales at the time. The term exergaming entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2007, the genre has been mooted as a way to improve users health through exercise, but few studies have been undertaken to measure the health benefits. Smaller trials have yielded mixed results and have shown that the traditional methods of exercise are superior to their video game equivalents. Exergaming contains elements that were developed in the virtual reality community during the 1980s, the pioneer in this area was Autodesk, which developed two systems, the HighCycle and Virtual Racquetball. The HighCycle was a bike that a user would pedal through a virtual landscape. If the user pedaled fast enough, the bike would take off. Virtual Racquetball tracked the position and orientation of a racquet that was used to hit a virtual ball in a virtual environment. This environment was shared with another user equipped with another tracked racquet, in both systems, the users could wear the VPL eyephones, an early head-mounted display, that would provide more immersion for the user. The first true attempt at what would later be called Exertainment was the Atari Puffer project and this was an exercise bike that would hook up to an Atari 400/800 or 5200 system. Forward speed was controlled by pedaling while steering and additional gameplay was handled by a handlebar-mounted Gamepad, the machine was nearly ready for production with several games when Atari declared bankruptcy and the Puffer project was abandoned. Nintendo also dabbled in this space with the Power Pad in the late 1980s, the first exergaming system released to the market was the 1986 Computrainer. The product had a price that was far too high to be considered as an entertainment product, the product continues to this day, where it now runs using Microsoft Windows compatible software with extensive graphic and physiological capabilities. Also released for the NES in 1986 was the Family Trainer, about the same time as the Computrainer, Concept II introduced a computer attachment for their rowing machine. Life Fitness and Nintendo partnered to produce the Exertainment System, Precor had an LCD-based bike product, the Netpulse system provided users with the ability to browse the web while exercising. Fitlinxx introduced a system used sensors attached to weight machines in order to provide automated feedback to users
19.
Digital rights management
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Digital rights management schemes are various access control technologies that are used to restrict usage of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies try to control the use, modification, and distribution of copyrighted works, the use of digital rights management is not universally accepted. Furthermore, works can become permanently inaccessible if the DRM scheme changes or if the service is discontinued, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Free Software Foundation consider the use of DRM systems to be an anti-competitive practice. Worldwide, many laws have been created which criminalize the circumvention of DRM, communication about such circumvention, such laws are part of the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the European Unions Copyright Directive. The term DRM is also referred to as copy protection, technical protection measures, copy prevention, or copy control. The advent of digital media and analog-to-digital conversion technologies has vastly increased the concerns of copyright-owning individuals and these concerns are particularly prevalent within the music and movie industries, because these sectors are partly or wholly dependent on the revenue generated from such works. This, combined with the Internet and popular file-sharing tools, has made unauthorized distribution of copies of copyrighted digital media much easier, DRM technologies enable content publishers to enforce their own access policies on content, such as restrictions on copying or viewing. These technologies have been criticized for restricting individuals from copying or using the content legally, DRM is in common use by the entertainment industry. However, Apple dropped DRM from all iTunes music files around 2009, for instance, tractor companies try to prevent the DIY repairing by the owning farmers under usage of DRM-laws as DMCA. Digital Rights Management Techniques include, Restrictive Licensing Agreements, The access to materials, copyright. Some restrictive licenses are imposed on consumers as a condition of entering a website or when downloading software, encryption, Scrambling of expressive material and embedding of a tag, This technology is designed to control access and reproduction of information. This includes backup copies for personal use, computer games sometimes use DRM technologies to limit the number of systems the game can be installed on by requiring authentication with an online server. Most games with this restriction allow three or five installs, although some allow an installation to be recovered when the game is uninstalled. In mid-2008, the publication of Mass Effect marked the start of a wave of titles primarily making use of SecuROM for DRM, the use of the DRM scheme in 2008s Spore backfired and there were protests, resulting in a considerable number of users seeking an unlicensed version instead. This backlash against the limit was a significant factor in Spore becoming the most pirated game in 2008. Additionally, other games that use intrusive DRM such as BioShock, Crysis Warhead. Although Ubisoft has not commented on the results of the experiment, Ubisoft formally announced a return to online authentication on 9 February 2010, through its Uplay online gaming platform, starting with Silent Hunter 5, The Settlers 7, and Assassins Creed II. Silent Hunter 5 was first reported to have been compromised within 24 hours of release, the Uplay system works by having the installed game on the local PCs incomplete and then continuously downloading parts of the game-code from Ubisofts servers as the game progresses
20.
Outsourcing
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In business, outsourcing involves the contracting out of a business process and operational, and/or non-core functions to another party. The concept outsourcing came from the American Glossary outside resourcing and it dates back to at least 1981, Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another, but not always. Outsourcing is also the practice of handing control of public services to private enterprise. Outsourcing includes both foreign and domestic contracting, and sometimes includes offshoring or nearshoring, many people confuse outsourcing and offshoring – however they are different. A company can outsource and not offshore to a distant country, for example, in 2003 Procter and Gamble outsourced their facilities management support, but it did not involve offshoring. Financial savings from lower international labor rates can provide a major motivation for outsourcing or offshoring, there can be tremendous savings from lower international labor rates when offshoring. The opposite of outsourcing, insourcing, entails bringing processes handled by third-party firms in-house, however, a business can provide a contract service to another organization without necessarily insourcing that business process. Two organizations may enter into an agreement involving an exchange of services, expertise. Outsourcing is said to help firms to perform well in their core competencies, fuel innovation, in the early 21st century, businesses increasingly outsourced to suppliers outside their own country, sometimes referred to as offshoring or offshore outsourcing. and Vested outsourcing. Outsourcing can offer greater flexibility and control. Outsourcing allows organizations to pay for the services and business functions they need and it also reduces the need to hire and train specialized staff, brings in fresh engineering expertise, and can reduce capital and operating expenses and risk. Do what you do best and outsource the rest has become an internationally recognized business tagline first coined and developed in the 1990s by the management consultant Peter Drucker. The slogan was used to advocate outsourcing as a viable business strategy. It has been said that Mr. Drucker began explaining the concept of Outsourcing as early as 1989 in his Wall Street Journal article entitled Sell the Mailroom, from Druckers perspective, a company should only seek to subcontract in those areas in which it demonstrated no special ability. In 2009 by way of recognition, Peter Drucker posthumously received a significant honor, recently, innovative business models have been developed to help reduce the cost for outsourcing. In particular, these models may leverage on group bargaining power by aggregating similar outsourcing demands from various organizations when negotiating with external contractors. The incentive to outsource may be greater for U. S. companies due to unusually high taxes and mandated benefits, like social security, Medicare. At the same time, it appears U. S. companies do not outsource to reduce executive or managerial costs, for instance, executive pay in the United States in 2007 was more than 400 times more than average workers—a gap 20 times bigger than it was in 1965
21.
Software license
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A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law all software is copyright protected, in code as also object code form. The only exception is software in the public domain, most distributed software can be categorized according to its license type. Two common categories for software under copyright law, and therefore with licenses which grant the licensee specific rights, are proprietary software and free, unlicensed software outside the copyright protection is either public domain software or software which is non-distributed, non-licensed and handled as internal business trade secret. Contrary to popular belief, distributed unlicensed software is copyright protected. Examples for this are unauthorized software leaks or software projects which are placed on public software repositories like GitHub without specified license. As voluntarily handing software into the domain is problematic in some international law domains, there are also licenses granting PD-like rights. Therefore, the owner of a copy of software is legally entitled to use that copy of software. Hence, if the end-user of software is the owner of the respective copy, as many proprietary licenses only enumerate the rights that the user already has under 17 U. S. C. §117, and yet proclaim to take away from the user. Proprietary software licenses often proclaim to give software publishers more control over the way their software is used by keeping ownership of each copy of software with the software publisher. The form of the relationship if it is a lease or a purchase, for example UMG v. Augusto or Vernor v. Autodesk. The ownership of goods, like software applications and video games, is challenged by licensed. The Swiss based company UsedSoft innovated the resale of business software and this feature of proprietary software licenses means that certain rights regarding the software are reserved by the software publisher. Therefore, it is typical of EULAs to include terms which define the uses of the software, the most significant effect of this form of licensing is that, if ownership of the software remains with the software publisher, then the end-user must accept the software license. In other words, without acceptance of the license, the end-user may not use the software at all, one example of such a proprietary software license is the license for Microsoft Windows. The most common licensing models are per single user or per user in the appropriate volume discount level, Licensing per concurrent/floating user also occurs, where all users in a network have access to the program, but only a specific number at the same time. Another license model is licensing per dongle which allows the owner of the dongle to use the program on any computer, Licensing per server, CPU or points, regardless the number of users, is common practice as well as site or company licenses
22.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
23.
History of video games
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The history of video games goes as far back as the early 1950s, when academic computer scientists began designing simple games and simulations as part of their research. Since the 1980s, video gaming has become a form of entertainment. One of the games was Spacewar. Which was developed by computer scientists, early arcade video games developed from 1972 to 1978. During the 1970s, the first generation of consoles emerged, including the popular game Pong. The 1970s was also the era of computer games. The golden age of video games was from 1978 to 1982. During the 1980s, gaming computers, early online gaming and handheld LCD games emerged, from 1976 to 1992, the second generation of video consoles emerged. The third generation of consoles, which were 8-bit units, emerged from 1983 to 1995, the fourth generation of consoles, which were 16-bit models, emerged from 1987 to 1999. The 1990s saw the resurgence and decline of arcades, the transition to 3D video games, improved handheld games, the fifth generation of consoles, which were 32 and 64-bit units, was from 1993 to 2006. During this era, mobile phone gaming emerged, during the 2000s, the sixth generation of consoles emerged. During this period, online gaming and mobile games became important, the seventh generation of consoles was from 2005 to 2012. In 2013, the generation of consoles emerged, including Nintendos Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, Microsofts Xbox One. PC gaming has been holding a market share in Asia. The term video game has evolved over the decades from a technical definition to a general concept defining a new class of interactive entertainment. Technically, for a product to be a game, there must be a video signal transmitted to a cathode ray tube that creates a rasterized image on a screen. From a technical standpoint, these would more properly be called games or computer games. Today, however, the video game has completely shed its purely technical definition
24.
Braid (video game)
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Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by Number None. The game was released in August 2008 for the Xbox 360s Xbox Live Arcade service. Ports were developed and released for Microsoft Windows in April 2009, OS X in May 2009, PlayStation 3 in November 2009, the basic story elements unfold as the protagonist, Tim, attempts to rescue a princess from a monster. Text passages laid throughout the game reveal a narrative, giving clues about Tims contemplations and motivations. The game features aspects of the platform genre while integrating various powers of time-manipulation. Using these abilities, the player progresses by finding and assembling jigsaw puzzle pieces, Jonathan Blow designed the game as a personal critique of contemporary trends in game development. He funded the project with his own money. Webcomic artist David Hellman drew the artwork, which underwent several iterations until it satisfied Blows vision, a preliminary version of Braid without the final artwork won the Innovation in Game Design award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival, the final version received additional accolades. The game received positive reviews from critics, eventually becoming the highest critically rated title on Xbox Live. Some reviewers, however, criticized the price relative to its length. Braid was seen as a title in the growth of indie game development since its 2008 release. The game, as of 2015, had total revenue nearing $6 million, Braid is played by solving physical puzzles in a standard platform game environment. The player controls the protagonist Tim as he runs, jumps, Tim jumps and stomps on enemies to defeat them, and can collect keys to unlock doors or operate levers to trigger platforms. A defining game element is the unlimited ability to reverse time and rewind actions. Each world has its own time-based game mechanic,2, time and Forgiveness plays as an ordinary platform game, except that the player may rewind time to undo their actions. The section includes several challenges that would be unplayable or unfair in a platform game. Rewinding can thus be used to change the synchronization between objects that can and cannot be rewound, the basis of many puzzles in this section and this theme is also used in later worlds to denote objects unaffected by the players time manipulation. Time and Place links the passage of time to the player characters location on the horizontal axis, as the player moves toward the right, time flows forward, while moving toward the left reverses the flow, standing still or moving vertically will pause time
25.
World of Goo
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World of Goo is a puzzle video game developed and published by independent game developer 2D Boy. The game was first released on Microsoft Windows and Wii platforms on October 13,2008, with releases on Nintendo Switch, Mac OS X, Linux, the game is built around the idea of creating large structures using balls of goo. The game is divided into five chapters, each containing several levels, each level has its own graphic and musical theme, giving it unique atmosphere. There is also a bonus meta-game called World of Goo Corporation, players from all over the world can compete, as the height of the tower and number of goo balls used are being constantly uploaded to the 2D Boy server. The main objective of the game is to get a number of goo balls to a pipe designed to represent the exit. There are several types of goo balls in the game, each of which has unique properties, the player must exploit combinations of these goo balls in order to complete each level. The WiiWare version includes multiplayer with up to four people on the same Wii and this facility is also available, albeit unsupported, in the Linux port. World of Goo is split up into four chapters and an epilogue, the chapters are set over the course of one year in the World of Goo. Each chapter takes place one season, beginning in the start of summer. The 4th chapter is seasonless, and is set in a virtual world, levels and chapters in the game are interspersed with cut scenes. An additional chapter selectable from the menu is the World Of Goo Corporation. Goos collected above and beyond the amount to pass a level are piped out of each of the played levels to here. Starting from just a single triangle of Goo, the aim is to build the highest possible tower. The Goos in the World of Goo Corporation are unique in that they can be repositioned like Ivy Goos but are black, the altitude of each cloud represents the height of that players tower. An online leaderboard charts the heights of the top 50 towers, there are a total of 48 levels in the game, including World of Goo Corporation. In an interview the developers stated that the version released in Europe would receive an additional sixth chapter. Few details were disclosed, but reportedly this chapter would have featured a freeform sandbox mode and this addition was canceled for Wii when 2D Boy announced they were releasing the game on WiiWare in Europe. The story is primarily through cut scenes and signs encountered throughout the game
26.
Minecraft
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Minecraft is a sandbox video game originally created and designed by Swedish game designer Markus Notch Persson, and later fully developed and published by Mojang. The creative and building aspects of Minecraft enable players to build out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering, crafting, the PC version of the game is noted for its modding scene, where a dedicated community creates new gameplay mechanics, items, and assets for the game. Minecraft received praise from critics, and won awards and accolades. As of February 2017, over 121 million copies have been sold across all platforms, making it the second best-selling video game of all time, only behind the various releases of Tetris. In September 2014, Microsoft announced a deal to buy Mojang, Minecraft is a three-dimensional sandbox game that has no specific goals for the player to accomplish, allowing players a great amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. However, there is an achievement system, gameplay by default is first person, but players have the option to play in third person mode. The core gameplay revolves around breaking and placing blocks, the game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes—arranged in a fixed grid pattern and representing different materials, such as dirt, stone, various ores, water, lava, tree trunks, etc. While players can move freely across the world, objects can only be placed at fixed locations on the grid, players can gather these material blocks and place them elsewhere, thus allowing for various constructions. At the start of the game, the player is placed on the surface of a procedurally generated, the world is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields. Players can walk across the terrain consisting of plains, mountains, forests, caves, the in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting 20 real-time minutes. Throughout the course of the game, players encounter various non-player characters known as mobs, including animals, villagers, non-hostile animals—such as cows, pigs, and chickens—can be hunted for food and crafting materials, and spawn in the daytime. By contrast, hostile mobs—such as large spiders, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places, such as caves. The game world is generated as players explore it, using a map seed which is obtained from the system clock at the time of world creation unless manually specified by the player. The game achieves this by splitting the world data into smaller sections called chunks. The games physics system has often described by commentators as unrealistic. Most solid blocks are not affected by gravity, liquids flow from a source block, which can be removed by placing a solid block in its place, or by scooping it into a bucket. Complex systems can be built using mechanical devices, electrical circuits
27.
Nintendo Switch
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The Nintendo Switch is the seventh major home video game console developed by Nintendo. Known in development as the NX, it was unveiled in October 2016, Nintendo considers the Switch a hybrid console, it is designed primarily as a home console, with the main unit inserted onto a docking station to connect to a television. Alternatively, it can be removed from the dock and used similarly to a computer through its LCD touchscreen. The Switch supports both physical flash ROM cartridges and digital content for games and software, and does not use region locking. From 2014, Nintendo had several quarters of financial losses due to poor sales of its previous console, the Wii U. Then-Nintendo president Satoru Iwata pushed the company towards mobile gaming and novel hardware, the Switchs design is aimed at a wider demographic of video game players through the multiple modes of use, while retaining Nintendos hardware uniqueness and innovation. Nintendo saw 2014 as one of its largest financial losses in its modern history, previously, the company had been hesitant about this market, with then-president Satoru Iwata considering that they would cease to be Nintendo and lose their identity if they attempted to enter it. Following Iwatas death in July 2015, Kimishima was named as president of Nintendo, in an interview with Asahi Shimbun, Kimishima stated that the Switch was designed to provide a new way to play that would have a larger impact than the Wii U. In some cases, games for the Switch are designed to encourage social interactions in groups, Kimishima said that as Nintendo is an entertainment company, they see games on the Switch that encourage enjoyable social interactions such as these as supporting their ultimate goals. EPD deputy general manager Yoshiaki Koizumi served as the producer of the Switch during development. According to Miyamoto, the Switchs development within Nintendo was headed by employees, with him saying. its really been them that have put this forward. For Miyamoto, his limited involvement allowed him to more time on Nintendos software titles being developed at the time. The development of the Switch continued Nintendos blue ocean approach for the competitive console marketplace, One choice made by the development team was to use an existing system on a chip rather than creating their own as they had done on previous consoles. Koizumi said that this break from tradition was to help be able to gain more third-party support for the console by using an SOC they could easily port to. The first public news of the Switch hardware was alongside the announcement of Nintendo, at this stage, Nintendo referred to the console under the codename NX, and described it as a brand new concept. At an investors meeting in April 2016, Nintendo announced that it planned to release the NX worldwide in March 2017. At a Nintendo shareholders meeting following the conference, Miyamoto stated that the company had concerns that competitors could copy ideas from the NX if they revealed it too soon. The following month, rumors began to surface surrounding the nature of the console, including its use of Nvidia Tegra hardware, and being a hybrid device intended for both home and mobile use
28.
Bastion (video game)
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Bastion is an action role-playing video game developed by independent developer Supergiant Games and published by Warner Bros. In the game, the controls the Kid as he moves through floating. It features a dynamic voiceover from a narrator, and is presented as a game with an isometric camera. Bastions story follows the Kid as he collects special shards of rock to power a structure, the game was built over the course of two years by a team of seven people split between San Jose and New York City. Bastion was published in July 2011 for Xbox Live Arcade and in August 2011 through digital distribution for Windows on Steam, Supergiant Games made it available as a browser game for Google Chrome in December 2011. A version for iPad was released in August 2012, in April 2015 it was released for the PlayStation 4. Bastions soundtrack was produced and composed by Darren Korb, and an album was made available for sale in August 2011. During 2011, the game more than 500,000 copies,200,000 of which were for the Xbox Live Arcade. It sold over 3 million copies across all platforms by January 2015, the game was widely praised by reviewers, primarily for its story, art direction, narration, and music. Opinions were mixed on the depth of the gameplay, though the variety of options in the system was praised. Bastion is an action role-playing game with a level structure, the player character, the Kid, moves through floating, fantasy-themed environments that form paths as the player approaches the edge. Levels consist of a plane, and are viewed isometrically. They are filled with enemies of various types, which attempt to harm the Kid, the Kid carries two weapons, which may be selected from the choices available to the player at specific locations called arsenals. The Kid also has the ability to perform a special attack, weapons and special attacks must be acquired before they can be used. There are a number of special attacks that the player can perform at any time. Special attacks may be used a total of three times and this maximum number of uses can be increased in the Distillery. The Kids health is represented by a bar, which can be replenished with health tonics. Like black tonics, the Kid can only carry a number of health potions at a time
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Supergiant Games
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Supergiant Games is an American video game development company based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2009 by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon, the studio is known for their critically acclaimed titles Bastion and Transistor. Supergiant Games was formed by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon in 2009, both had been working at the Los Angeles studio of Electronic Arts, involved with the Command & Conquer series. In 2009 they agreed to quit their job, move into the same house, at that time, they had also hired musician Darren Korb for audio and music work. They also used a number of programmers and developers they could call on for help at various times during the development of this first game. Their first game, Bastion, received critical praise, including being listed among several Game of the Year lists from game journalists. It was first shown in mid-development at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo as part of its PAX10 highlight ten upcoming independently developed games and this attracted several publishers who wanted to help distribute the game, but Supergiant Games found that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment shared the vision they had for the game. Supergiant selected them as their partner, enabling them not only to distribute the game to Xbox Live Arcade. In March 2013, Supergiant Games announced their title, Transistor. A promotion video was released March 19, the game features a female protagonist, Red, in a cyberpunk-like city, who had gained possession of a powerful weapon that she is nearly killed for possessing. The game features an isometric viewpoint to Bastion. Transistor was similarly met with critical acclaim with a critic score of 83 on Metacritic. In April 2016, Supergiant Games announced their third game Pyre, to be released in 2017 for Microsoft Windows and it was described as a party-based role playing game
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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
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WB Games Inc. doing business as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, is a division of Warner Bros, Interactive Entertainment licensed out their first game property under their current name, Batman Forever to Acclaim Entertainment. In 2003, they co-published their first video game, Looney Tunes, electronic Arts was the other publisher of the game. In 2004, Warner Bros. acquired developer Monolith Productions, in 2005, the WB Games label was created. The first game that Monolith developed in conjunction with Warner Bros, Entertainment was The Matrix Online which SEGA helped co-publish. Warner Bros. also helped distribute both Enter the Matrix and The Matrix, Path of Neo for the Matrix series, in 2006, they bought a 10. 3% stake in SCi Entertainment, the owner of Eidos Interactive. That same year, they released their first self-published title, Justice League Heroes, in April 2008, they increased their stake to 35% gaining distribution right of all Eidos games in the United States, Canada and Mexico. On January 28,2009, The Hollywood Reporter reported the deal also gave Warner the rights of the Tomb Raider film series, previously owned by Paramount Pictures. On February 12,2009, SQEX Ltd, an owned subsidiary of Square Enix, announced a takeover offer worth GB£84.3 million for Eidos plc. Square Enix eventually took over the company April 22,2009, Warner Bros. announced on February 4,2009 it had purchased independent developer Snowblind Studios. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition serves to strengthen the internal development effort. In 2009, Warner purchased most of the assets of American publisher Midway Games, operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, for US$49 million. The assets purchased include Midways studio in Chicago and Surreal Software, resulting in the ownership to the rights to the Joust, Mortal Kombat, The Suffering, Spy Hunter, Midway Games had previously worked with Warner Bros. on several games including Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Midway intended to hold an auction of its assets on June 29,2009, on July 10,2009, the sale to Warner was completed for approximately US$49 million. In the process, WB Games became the owner of the Blitz, on July 28,2009, Midways Mortal Kombat team was rebranded WB Games Chicago by its new owners and, in 2010 was merged with Midway Games to form NetherRealm Studios. On January 13,2010, it was announced that Warner Bros, Interactive Entertainment will produce and have exclusive rights to Sesame Street video games starting in fall 2010 with Elmos A-to-Zoo Adventure and Cookies Counting Carnival. On February 23,2010, Warner Bros, home Entertainment Group announced it had acquired majority stake in Rocksteady Studios, an independent development studio based in London. Rocksteady and Warner had previously worked together in Batman, Arkham Asylum and Batman, Arkham City, on March 22,2010, Warner Bros
