Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: graphics

Why Do I Find Games Attractive?

Posted on by Viljami

I have been recently playing Gran Turismo 4. I haven’t finished Resident Evil Village yet. I have played it for five hours. I also picked up Hollow Knight. This game has some very attractive two-dimensional graphics. I thought this would be a short game. I checked how long it takes to complete form HowLongToBeat dot com and I found out that it takes 25 and a half hours to complete. That’s a long time for this kind of a game.

As I begun playing Hollow Knight I started wondering what it really is in games that appeals to me? Is it the graphics? Is it the sound? Is it the way that you get to interact and really get involved in the story? The answer is propably the combination of all these things.

I don’t actually remember my early childhood. My parents have told me that I was excited about technology and different kinds of machines at an early age. I can believe that easily. It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that I am today deeply interested in technology. I also have studied and I am currently working in the field.

What is it in games that appeal to so many people around the world? This question might not have a clear answer. There has to be something special about it. Video games have always since their first appearance been extremely popular. Back in the 1960s when a video game called “Tennis for Two” was introduced to audience it blew many peoples minds.

Today the business of producing video games is huge. Games are more popular than ever. Video games aren’t anymore just for children. Gaming has become a hobby for everyone. It doesn’t matter what is your gender, where do you live, are you poor or rich. There seems to be absolutely no limit. This can be a good thing but it might also be a bad thing.

There are lots of games that are very good. But there has been some huge disappointments also. Maybe the consumer should think about where he or she puts the money. And also we should support independent developers even more than we do today. This way we can have gaming as a hobby. And everyone will be happy, right?

Dreams of Making a Video Game

Posted on by Viljami

I woke up today a bit early. I put on my headphones and started listening music and browsing internet. The sun was rising. I just had to take this picture with my phone and share it with you. But let’s get to today’s subject. Have you always dreamed of making your own game? Well, I have.

It started with playing games as a kid. As I grew older I started to get a sense of what gaming really was. I wanted to make a game. I was also fascinated with designing websites. While I was studying in high school I started to think about my future and what I would want to study after it. I though a lot about trying to study something that required creativity. I was also a decent math student. Finally I decided to go for math and physics instead of studying art.

My life has been a one big trip. I finally got to studying computer science in 2010. Since I started I had a dream of some day developing a game or at least a nice looking dynamic website. Things didn’t actually go that way. After graduating I found out how hard it was to get a job in the field. However I did program a game. It was text based adventure game.

This wasn’t the kind of game I had dreamed of making. The game I imagined was graphical adventure game that had discussions, small puzzles, some kinds of graphics and lots of interactivity. I wanted to create something special. I lacked skills in creating graphics and programming.

The dream didn’t seem to disappear. I still have it. I know some programming but the task seems to be too difficult. I have tried to get into Python (PyGame), Java and JavaScript but it seems to be too hard for me to learn effectively. I don’t know what happens to this dream as the time goes forward all the time. I admit that it’s a bit sad.

So designing games hasn’t been the job that would fit me perfectly. But maybe that’s why you dream. You can imagine what you might some day achieve. Just remember that it’s hard work to learn something so deeply. And before you try your hand in programming just remember that it’s hard to get into. But if you are really talented just go ahead. I know some very talented programmers that have made it. And keep dreaming even if you achieve your goals. There are so many different ways for a person to develop himself or herself.

Transition from 2D to 3D

Posted on by Viljami

You can see clearly the differences between games based on 2D graphics and games based on 3D technology. Two dimensional gameplay has been around longer. Typical 2D games are platformers, like Super Mario Bros 3, shoot-em-ups, like Gynoug, M.U.S.H.A. and many others, and beat-em-ups, like games of Streets Of Rage series.

The distinction becomes clear when you are playing a game. Movement can be restricted only to two dimensional movement. You can think of how playing Tekken is compared to Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat. You can also compare the first Super Mario to a pioneer of 3D games Super Mario 64, which was a game for Nintendo 64. Some games are something from between 2D and 3D. Like many PlayStation 1 games.

Games that are three dimensional usually provide wider movement options and are based on 3D models. You can clearly interact stronger with the objects that are inside the game. Graphics also look more realistic. I don’t think there is a reason today to call a game a lousy game for not having 3D qualities. Again, this is just a difference in the game and it has surely been thoroughly given a long thought when the game was developed. This hasn’t always been the case.

Somewhere in the middle of the 90s 3D was amazing and new. The technology that was used for making games was developing at a very fast pace. Today these games are considered to be retro. It doesn’t matter so much today how the game is developed as long as it is of a good quality overall.

So I would say that we today have a much wider and more accepting community of gamers playing many different kinds of games. And I think this is very good. There will always be games that are based on the latest technology but there is also games that aim to some other target.

The featured image here stands out as Tomb Raider was one of the earliest and most popular games that used 3D technology. It was released in 1996. The possibilities of this games graphical abilities was amazing and almost endless as you could run the game with very high graphical settings if you had a good graphics card. I recall this time as a dawn of new technology that made personal computers more powerful than ever.