UNIT 01 – A01

Key trends

Industry magazines have developed either to be exclusively about the industry and so are B2B and not available on newstands, OR have evolved into high brow critical evaluations of film.
Consumer magazines have grown from being aimed primarily at a female audience to being more fan-boy male orientated. Looking at Empire and Total Film these are both consumer magazines with a focus on Blockbuster, multi-plex titles rather than arthouse indy.
The written word is still the most popular medium to express critical views, however, the popularity of the Kermode and Mayo podcast shows that verbal responses on radio (or podcast) are being to grow in popularity.
The niche magazines that focus on one sub-genre tend to be focused on horror and Sci-fi – both genres that are flexible enough to allow for new and interesting content, but also are aimed at a hardcore fanbase

Unit 01 History Of Sandbox Games

A Sandbox game enables the player to have a large degree of freedom enabling the player to explore an open three dimensional environment rather than forcing you to do continuous missions.

There can be various versions of a sandbox game each having there own unique features but overall the same concept of exploring a open end world and interacting with various interfaces.

The first pioneering concept game which was credited an open world game was Elite which was realeased on the 20th September 1984. Elite was published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro and Acorn computers. Elite was about an open world space trading video game. Elite was one of the first video games to use three dimensional wire frame graphics enabling the player to explore an open world enviroment. The Elite universe contains 8 Galaxies, each galaxy containing 256 galaxies for the player to explore.

In the early eighties, Namco developt Bosconian. Bosconian was a free roaming shooter game but enabled two game modes. The first being a one player and second being a Co-Op mode enabling two people to play alternatley. This attracted a new audience of gamers as they could compete together and as the conecpt of the game is very basic, it was suited for all ages. This game is also a si-fi themed as it is set in space and the objective is simple, Just to destroy your enimies ships and spacestations using your spaceships weapons. I think this game is very innotive as it features the first basic multiplayer mode.

In 1986, Durell Software published Turbo esprit. The game was very deatiled and advanced for the time as it featured cars with working indicator lights, Pedestrians, Traffic lights and a view of the interior of the car. It was the earliest example of a free roaming city enviroment as well as the forst free roaming driving game which later had a big influence of the Grand Theft Auto seires. I think this game set the bench mark for new free roaming games as it included the very detaied and technical aspects of an open world enviroment.

In 1991, Paul Holmes developt Hunter which was published by Activision for the Amiga and Atari ST Sytems. Hunter enables the player to control a soilder in a large three dimensional world. The player can interact with various vehicles including cars, bikes, ships, tanks and helicopters each vehicle enabling its own unique properties. The player can also exlpore the large varieties of buildings which they can enter. Hunter was a bold step forward for three dimensional vector graphic gaming and also feature a rather sophisticated AI for its time. This enabled the player to shoot enemies as well as controlling vehicles. It was because of this, I thought this game was another big milestone for sandbox games.

In 1996, Nintendo developt Super Mario 64 which was considered revolutionary for its 3D opening ended free raoming worlds. This platform game was realeased for Nintendo 64, iQue Player and Virtual console. The player was able to control Mario far more diverse than previous Mario games using the game controllers analog stick and buttons. The game sold more than eleven million copies making it hugely succesfull to a vide variety of audiences. I belive this game is a big development as it established a large degree of exploration which many fans and critics acclaimed one of the greatest and revolutionary games of its time.

The game developers DMA Design later called Rockstar North most famous for creating the Grand Theft Auto seires developt a game called Body Harvest made fro the Nintendo 64. Body Harvest enables the player to assume the role of a genetically engineered soldier from a 3rd person perspective as they can walk freely around an enviromemt and interact with various object such as weapons, people and vehices. The layout of the display very much resembles the Grand Theft Auto franchise with a circular minimap in the top right corner and your inventory and heath bar in the bottom left. I belive this game was the skeleton for GTA hence why I think its revolutionary.

In 2001, DMA Designs created what would be the greatest seires of open world sandbox games Grand Theft Auto seires as it sold over 14 million copies. Critics said the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001 was a revolutionary event in the history of video games. Grand Theft Auto III was created in the United Kingdom by Mike Dailley. It was primarily developed by Rockstar North which was a British developer formerly DMA Design. Grand Theft Auto is published by Rockstar Games. Each Grand Theft Auto game in the seires allows the player to take on the role of a underground criminal who eventuallly rises through the ranks of organized crime. During the game, the player is given various missions and side activities to complete such as races, assasinations and gangwarfare. Grand Theft Auto is also famous for its stunning locations and settings in which the character is based in. GTA III & IV are set in Liberty city based upon New York City.

Grand Theft Auto IV was realeased in 2008 ann was developed by Rockstar North and Toronto. The game was played on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. This game in the GTA seires follows the same priniciples as the player has to work their character through various missions and side activities to complete the game. However, what made GTA IV standout to its predecessors was that in this game, could play online with other people around the world in the multplayer feature, as well as the downloadable content with a further two expansion packs The Lost And Damned and The Ballad Of Gay Tony which featured new plots based in the same city giving the player the same game in a different perspective.

In 2010, Rockstar Games released Red Dead Redemption which was a western action – adventure free roaming game. The game was set in 1911 in the American West. Much like GTA, the player controls a certain indivdual through various missions and tasks and has the freedom to exlpore the vast western setting and use to the period weapons and vehicles to help accomplish tasks. Red Dead Redemption is my favourite game developed by Rockstar. I very much like the setting and plot of the game as well as the very technical and combat skills and amazing, clear graphics.

Rockstar’s sandbox games now feature a lot of sub genres. For Red Dead Redemption and GTA for example, they both feature a role playing game genre as the player controls the character’s life and welfare.

In 2011, Minecraft was released for the PC and Mac for £16. The player could take complete creative control and exploration. The game is focused mainly on creativity and building where the player has to fight for survival by gathering inventory and making tools and weapons to fend for themselves. The game environment is made up from three dimensional textured cubes. The games simplicity has redifined sandbox games as most sandbox games today have high quality graphics and a technical plot wheras MInecraft takes the player back in time to the basics. I think it was because of that, Minecraft is hugely seccessful to any age of audience.

After researching these games, Technology has clearly progressed to the high standards of what the audience expect to see in a sandbox game in this present time. Nowadays, the platforms the games play on have a large hard drive enabling the game to have a very large, rendered environment. What the developers face today when creating a new sandbox game is to reach the standards of what the audience expect to see and what they want to achieve. When Rockstar released GTA IV in 2008, I was expecting much more than what was in the game such as being able to fly and explore inside buildings. When red dead Redemption was released in 2010 there wasn’t much of a bench mark set as this theme of sandbox video games wasn’t made. Even though it is my favourite game, I could of thought about a lot of things that could be improved and what could have made it a more enjoyable playing experience. After researching the time period in which the game is set in, it would have been more fun if there were cars which you can enter and drive around the environment.

On the other hand, the developers and publishers face the issue of following a schedule and reaching deadlines. Its because of these issues I think games cannot contain everything the audience expects. For example, it would take Rockstar months just to enable flying planes in the game. The developers also have to stick to their budget they are given to make the game.