Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Both trailers can be seen similar when it comes to analysing their features like the music and editing for example. This was because game trailers in the horror genre come across as slow paced, dark with disturbing music to make the viewer uneasy but at the same time interested in what the trailer has to offer. I feel as though I hit the nail on the head when demonstrating the horror features of a real game trailer. I can prove this when discussing my game being a first person horror because in the trailer there is a scene when the camera man is investigating a room through his eyes and with the sound of his heart beating and occasional times of blacking out it makes the trailer look terrifying.

I believe there are two types of horror games, one is where the protagonist of the game is presented to be some what of a coward and the enemy can easily over power them or a horror game where the enemy is absolutely terrifying to face but the main characters are really skilled at taking them down. These two types of games leads to two types of covers, the first type of horror game generally sees the front cover only showing the enemy because they are what the audience wants to see like the game 'Outlast', where the big psychiatric patient trying to kill the player is the only visible character on the front cover; while the second type of front cover will have the game's main character showing them dominating the enemy in some way. Following the second horror game type of the players dominating the enemy, my front cover can clearly be seen with the medic and the camera man with one foot on each person who has been infected with a deadly virus at either side of the 3rd character standing in the middle holding the signature weapon of the game. I feel as thought the front cover of my game is strong when competing with a real game front cover from the horror genre.

Articles written about a upcoming horror game aim to interest and excite the viewer while having a dark gothic theme to give the audience a impression that the game features uneasy content that should keep them at the edge of their seat. I have noticed that these articles accomplish their goal by having a background image of a place players will be able to visit in the game that looks as though you wouldn't want to investigate alone. On my article this background is an abandoned corridor, a place where no one would wander around alone and it is a very dark image with a dim light source which is what you find on a real article. To interest the viewer the authors of these horror game articles go into detail about the game engine and mechanics as a players limitation will lead to mental vulnerability which stops them from running around every corner. My article goes into detail about each playable character and their abilities because it gives the reader a clear idea of what they can do to avoid dying and asking for unwanted attention from the enemy while it also lets them think about what they can't do as a player making survival a challenge.      




How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I have made each media product and ancillary texts run with each other and adding them up gives all the information about the game to the audience. The trailers give a brief on what the game's story will be about and shows horror fans what type of blood thirsty enemy will be chasing them, plus a taste of what kind of environment they will have to explore. The game's front cover gives players the impression that the game isn't just about running and hiding and defending themselves will be possible because of the characters having one foot on a couple of corpses. The style and design of the game's title on the front cover backs up the two trailers from a horror point of view, that the game will have the player terrified at every corner. The game's article continues to support the other media products with the impression of a scary game with it's mysterious abandoned corridor for a background and the design of the game's title. This part of advertising lets the player's know how the game will work and how each character's abilities will contribute for the team to help them survive what the game has in store for them. Overall the combination of my main products and ancillary texts  are really effective on players interested in the game because each form of advertisement gives individual parts of information on the game but all have the same thing in common keeping the game deep within the horror genre which is the aim for the game.  





What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have learned that my media products are designed well when portraying a feature from the horror genre. I made a good choice of music, sound effects and editing for my trailers that shows it is from the horror genre because of the feedback that mentions that you can tell immediately that both trailers are advertising a horror game. The game's front cover also received positive feedback about how it represents a game from the horror genre; people noticed the dark dull background to give off a mysterious atmosphere and the style of the title gives off that it will be a terrifying, jump out of your skin type of game. The game's article uses a creepy abandoned room which was seen as a abandoned bathroom to my audience and they thought it went very well with white text. The other thing I learned from my feedback to improve on next time is to be more specific when discussing the release date of the game because people like to have more information for when they want to purchase the game.



How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Both game trailers were filmed with a NIKON COOLPIX S2600 camera and the idea was that the camera man in the trailers also had a camera when it came to filming the first person scenes. We couldn't obtain two cameras so we decided to keep it modern with the camera man using a mobile phone to record the outbreak. When it came to filming the first person scenes we just used the NIKON camera because the device used by the camera man at that time wouldn't be seen so the audience will presume it is the mobile phone. After all the footage we needed was recorded I took it home with me to edit the trailers on my MAC BOOK PRO using the software IMOVIE. During editing I used IMOVIE's features to add sound, music, text and transitions while changing the films saturation to make the trailer less colourful and dull. After the trailers were finished I uploaded them to a private YouTube account so I could imbed them to my Blogger page.

The image for the game's front cover was taken with the NIKON COOLPIX S2600 with 14 megapixels and edited using PhotoShop. I started by cutting out the corpses and the 3 main characters using the lasso tool so I could blur and desaturate the image's background. Next I chose a font for the game's title and then played about with its properties adding a number of effects to make it glow and bloody. After the front cover was finished I exported it as a JPEG and uploaded it to Blogger.

The game's article was created on Publisher because it is easy to set text out for an article. I created thin text boxes across the screen then linked them together, this puts the text into columns and when I get to the end of each text box my typing will continue into the next box because of the link feature. After the article was finished again I exported the document into a JPEG file so it could be uploaded to blogger.

My research involved searching on different websites mainly the official sites of specific horror games for information and then using YouTube to analyse and imbed the trailers for these horror games on blogger. When comparing two different game cover's I used Google images to save an image to the computer's hard drive to then upload them to blogger.

Just about all of the planning for each media product was done either on paper or in a form of note book but thanks to technology I managed to scan the work using a printer to my computer's hard drive to then upload them as an image to blogger.

My Courswork

Target Audience
The target audience for our game will be for adults 18 years and older because the game will be inappropriate for anyone at a younger age. The game will specifically target players who are looking for a true horror experience, this means the player will be at a huge disadvantage to their enemies and will need to avoid and hide if they are going to survive. Players who love to work together will love this game as it will be designed for co-op play where your team mates co-operation is vital for survival.


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Planning for the Long Game Trailer
We started a rough plan for the story and camera shots of the long trailer in this note pad and then when we were satisfied with the planning we copied everything into the smaller notebook so it was easier to direct from on filming day.

The Long Game Trailer

The trailer takes place in a school where our 3 characters are searching for survivors and answers to the tragedy. The school is only one of many locations the game will be set in but a most crucial part of the game. In this trailer we wanted to show apart of the story where the characters don't know that people walking around are not people no more but infected with a virus that sends them into animalistic predators, the main reason for this is that it plays mystery on the game's story making it intriguing for the audience. Another aspect of the game we wanted to make clear was the first person engine for the camera man, because a horror game in first person gives the player a feeling of realism and it plays a huge part of keeping the player on edge with tension with its limited vision around the character.

 

Make Up Images for Production Day

A big factor of a horror game is blood and gore because it is part of the tension building that leads up to jump scares, it is a great way to make players uneasy when turning every corner. A class mate who is studying drama offered to design and apply make up to our infected actors to make their costumes more believable.

Planning for the Short Trailer
The initial idea for the short trailer is a technique we discovered in almost every horror game trailer we studied. The trailers starts off slow with pans and zooms of the games setting with small glimpses and hints of the game's threat before it speeds up with quick 2 second shots of the game's horrors and action scenes.

The Short Trailer
Following the technique from the horror trailers we began the slow build with a pan of the school before a first person visit to a destroyed classroom that looked like once a save haven for survivors. The trailer speeds up at the flickering lights before ending with the characters fighting back the infected.

Planning for the Game's Front Cover

We had a couple of ideas for the game's front cover and these included having a infected girl stood in the distance in the dark revealing enough to show a person is visible and then having the game's title above her head. Our second idea was to have a image of a dark corridor that had evidence of a lot of people trying to escape at once but a lot of them didn't make it and then have the game's title at the bottom. Our third idea would be to have a close up shot of the three main characters and then have the title going across their chests. Our last idea was to have the three main characters at a mid/long shot with the leader in the middle but closer to the camera while the medic and camera man would stand further back but at either side. 

Images for the Game's Front Cover
After debating we decided to go with the final front cover idea because using camera angles and editing it would be a good way to advertise the three main characters being dominant over the infected, even though the infected will be hard to overpower on the game defeating them will be an amazing accomplishment for the player. The first image was taken with the camera at eye level which we decided didn't look right as the medic on the right is half hidden behind the leader. This mistake lead us to taking the second photo at a low angle which makes the three characters seem big and important to the audience.

The Game's Front Cover
Using the second image we took to photoshop for the editing. We started by cutting out the three characters and infected so we could manipulate the background. The background is less saturated dimming the colours and blurred so it is less noticeable but a the same time gives a dark gloomy effect. After changing the background we changed the properties of the title 'Dysteria' giving it a glowing decomposed effect.

The Game's Article

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