Putting the Video Back in Video Games: Opportunities and Challenges for Visual Studies Approaches to Video Game Analysis

I argue for the application of visual studies in video game analysis. This approach presents opportunities for the intersectional analysis of video game visuals as games are brought into dialogue with other visual media like film and painting. This approach also presents challenges due to ontological distinctions between different media as well as due to academic divisions regarding the study of different art and media objects. Despite the challenges presented, a visual studies approach is particularly useful as a critical window into contemporary visual culture at large. I outline the fields of game studies and visual studies, marking their distinctions as well as the areas in which they overlap. I provide examples of visual studies approaches to video game analysis through an emphasis on the visual characteristics of video games. As visual studies is generally considered an interdisciplinary endeavor, I contextualize my analyses through comparisons with other visual media, in particular finding intersections with art history and film studies. Specifically, I argue that perspective is an integral visual trait of many video games, relating the use of linear perspective and isometric perspective, used in some genres of games, with the development of perspective in painting. I examine various cinematic techniques used in video games and discuss their ideological potency. I also cover ways in which video games subvert conventional norms, such as through self-reflexivity, to open up novel avenues for visual expression

MEnDiGa: A Minimal Engine for Digital Games

Game engines generate high dependence of developed games on provided implementation resources. Feature modeling is a technique that captures commonalities and variabilities results of domain analysis to provide a basis for automated configuration of concrete products. This paper presents the Minimal Engine for Digital Games (MEnDiGa), a simplified collection of game assets based on game features capable of building small and casual games regardless of their implementation resources. It presents minimal features in a representative hierarchy of spatial and game elements along with basic behaviors and event support related to game logic features. It also presents modules of code to represent, interpret, and adapt game features to provide the execution of configured games in multiple game platforms. As a proof of concept, a clone of the Doodle Jump game was developed using MEnDiGa assets and compared with original game version. As a result, a new G-factor based approach for game construction is provided, which is able to separate the core of game elements from the implementation itself in an independent, reusable, and large-scale way

Defining the indie game as process: aesthetic, production and community

The video game industry is now considered one of the largest entertainment industries in the world. This growth coincided with larger teams, budgets, and expectations to provide the latest technological advanced video games. However, in the mid to late 2000s there was a different type of game emerging – the indie game. Despite there being preconceptions about the qualifying factors of their classification - such as publishing independence - it has since become clear that indie games are not simply an abbreviation of independent. They represent and reflect different ways of working, ideas, values, and beliefs. In turn, there have been attempts to define “indie”, with some claiming that the term cannot be defined and therefore no longer makes sense. This research seeks to provide an intervention. Asserting that the term “indie” can be – and has been – understood in a variety of ways by a wide range of audiences over a period of several decades. This research draws on textual analysis, original practice-based research involving the production of an indie game, original interviews, and original audience research (drawing on a survey of 966 respondents) to arrive at a definition: Indie as process. Within this notion of indie as process, it is possible to identify three predominant themes. Indie as Aesthetic Process, Indie as Production Process, and Indie as Community Process. These processes, when considered in isolation or together, begin to inform our shared understanding of the indie game, allowing us to move beyond rigid ideas of what makes an indie game “indie”

Character Creator Tool

People want to be identified in some form while playing video games, customization is a game element to accomplish that challenge. This project will analyse diverse customization methods in video games, then identify best practices/features and reproduce them using Unity and Unreal Engine 4. Those techniques will be mainly analysed from the programmer's point of view. Later on, combining those techniques to create two final character creators one in 2D done in Unity and the other in 3D Unreal Engine 4

Answer2Pass Pro, multiplatform evaluation game

This Final Project covers the creation of an elearning software platform which enables teachers to evaluate their students through quizzes. Every quizz is different, showing different board sizes, category colours, randomly picked questions and answers and joker squares. In addition to of this, students can send their own questions to the platform. Thanks to the integration with Facebook the students can log in into the platform using their credentials and during the course of the game can send questions to other students using Facebook DM . On the teachers’ side the platform offers a few tools to help with the real everyday use, as the ability to create a hierarchy of subjects and topics or a feature to export all the results to a spreadsheet.Este Proyecto Final de Carrera consiste en la creación de una plataforma de aprendizaje que permita a profesores evaluar a sus alumnos a través de juegos de preguntas y respuestas. Cada juego es diferente a los demás, con tableros de distintos tamaños, colores por categoría, preguntas y respuestas aleatorias y casillas de la suerte. Además los propios alumnos pueden enviar preguntas de creación propia a la plataforma. Gracias a la integración con Facebook los alumnos pueden registrarse en la plataforma utilizando sus credenciales de la red social y durante el transcurso de los juegos pueden enviar preguntas a otros compañeros usando la herramienta de mensajes directos de Facebook . En el lado de los profesores se han diseñado varias herramientas para facilitar su uso en un entorno real, como la posibilidad de tener jerarquías de asignaturas y temas o la exportación de resultados a hoja de cálculo.Ingeniería Técnica en Informática de Gestió

VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNIQUES IN THE AID TO POPULATION AWARENESS AROUND A NUCLEAR WASTE

Nuclear energy has proved to be an extremely important source of energy for today's society. However, these achievements, even present in people's daily lives, often go unnoticed and suffer rejection by the same society that enjoys such contributions. Rejection, mainly due to the lack of information. In this context, this work used Virtual Reality technology to inform and make the population aware of the benefits and disadvantages of nuclear energy. For this purpose, an interactive virtual environment was produced that allowed the exploration of a nuclear waste repository. Subsequently, an educational video was developed to provide end-user information support. Finally, an educational game was also created with the aim of raising public awareness and demystifying the nuclear area by bringing knowledge, in a clear and engaging way, to the population around a nuclear repository. The developed environment allowed the user to walk through the virtual representation of the reject repository, and also enabled the creation of a video capable of transmitting the initial information and improving the spatial comprehension of the model as a whole. In conclusion, the tool developed in the present work has the capacity to assist in the production of nuclear projects before even entering the construction phase. In addition, it is possible to apply this technique to inform the population about the nuclear practices that will be applied, providing a greater involvement of the people and, consequently, a better assimilation of knowledge about nuclear energy

The Role of Public Service Broadcasters in the Era of Convergence A Case Study of Televisió de Catalunya

The development of the convergence process has several implications in the reconfiguration of the media landscape. Public services broadcasters have new opportunities to fulfil their public service duties in a new competitive environment, which involves developing new applications on new platforms. Televisió de Catalunya, the public service broadcaster (PSB) of Catalonia, has developed a clear strategy in this new convergent environment, applying its traditional know-how to new interactive and digital media according to its public mission and getting positive feedback.convergence; public service broadcasting; interactive TV; bandwidth; 3G services; multimedia and digital divide

“Mistérios do Som” – development of a serious game for children with speech and hearing disorders

The way we speak is extremely important when communicating with others, and out of all the forms of communication, this is surely the one that reveals most of our personality and emotions. Therefore, there is a problem to be solved when children begin to reveal some difficulties pronouncing and saying certain sounds and words, making it important to solve them promptly, as these problems can later reveal themselves in other topics, such as writing. Nowadays there are several types of exercises and tools that aim at diagnosing, treating and accompanying children to overcome these problems. Although the exercises used in the therapy sessions are somewhat successful, it is difficult to captivate and in-centive children during each session. To mitigate these issues, serious games arise, a concept that unites education and entertainment into one. Serious games can improve results in therapy sessions, stimulat-ing children and the therapist through a differentiating experience, and helping parents when their child is at home. It is within this concept that the “Mistérios do Som” game emerges, a serious game for children aged 6 to 10 that have speech and hearing disorders, combining gameplay in a 3D world with exercises that suit the needs of the child, giving the appropriate feedback according to their performance

Trouble in Paradise: Non-Monogamies and Queer Play in Digital Games

This thesis uses a combined method of game analysis and play-as-method to investigate the representation and performance of non-monogamies in digital role-playing games. I consider how an array of game elements including rules, mechanics, objectives, win and lose states, characters, and narrative shape the conditions within which non-monogamies are permitted, punished, and proscribed in videogames where players interact with prefabricated non-player characters (NPCs) in single-player worlds with scripted narratives. Through an exploration of the country life simulator and role-playing game (RPG) Stardew Valley (Barone, 2016), I investigate how popular and mainstream videogames both challenge and reinforce compulsory hetero-monogamy as a social institution and how players can resist mononormative and heteronormative tropes, systems, and scripts through queer play. Finally, I compare these titles to a selection of independent, small studio, and experimental titles to signal how alternative ways of designing in-game relationships can explore videogames’ potential to act as sites of queer becoming and resistance against compulsory hetero-monogamy