Gameplay vs Graphics

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There used to be a time when the graphics of a game would define how good it was. Every year a new game would be launched with better, more realistic graphics, and everyone knew that there had to be a point where the hardware simply wouldn't be able to cope up. There are computers which can beautifully run those heavy processor intensive games, but the average gamer cannot afford those systems. Even gaming consoles have a limit to which they can play the more graphic oriented titles.

Here's something interesting I found on my frequent trips to 9GAG,

Art of triangles-9GAG

There is a saturation point where we simply will not be distinguish the virtual world from reality. I have no doubt that in the next few iterations of the Gran Turismo series, cars will look so realistic that one will simply not be able to make out if it's real or virtual. It will be fascinating and wonderful to have a game which is indistinguishable from reality. But it might not be necessarily fun.

When I play Pokemon Emerald on my GameBoy Advance, I never did once dream of better graphics. The gameplay was so engaging that graphics simply didn't matter. Of course, Pokemon Emerald was made in the era of the GameBoy, so those pixelated graphics was the best Nintendo could come up with anyway. But even today, with titles such as Gran Turismo, Assasins Creed, and Call of Duty, Pokemon Emerald still has its appeal. Infact it might be even more appealing than any game on sale today. There is one simple reason why it's so much more appealing: I have more fun playing a simple Pokemon game than playing any modern title.

Pokemon FireRed in OpenEmu

Nintendo could not do much about the graphics, so there was a greater emphasis on the gameplay. They ended up making one of the most popular and successful games ever. Not only is the most involving role playing game till date, but it is also fun. The element of fun is what is lacking in many games. Call of Duty is extremely immersive and involving as well. It also gives players an adrenaline rush and was primarily designed to provide a unique experience. Not necessarily fun, unless you really enjoy shooting people. Yet Call of Duty has still retained it's USP of giving players a mindblowing experience at home. So Call of Duty can be classified as a different genre of gaming altogether, leaning toward simulation. But there are many other games that simply focus on graphics rather than gameplay. Aspyr's Star Wars games and Civilization series does seem excessively graphics oriented. TT Games Lego Star Wars is a brilliant Star Wars game, true to the heritage of Star Wars, but it is a lot more fun than the original Star Wars games.

When you play Pokemon, Mario, or any other old pixelated game, it's not as if you struggle to make out difference between each character. With higher resolution computer screens becoming more commonplace nowadays, it would be nice to double the pixel count, but there isn't any reason to give Mario facial expressions and emotions. Mario is the italian plumber who has to save a princess. No one needs to know anything beyond that. EA is another offender. We all love Need For Speed. But no one needs to play NFS with Gran Turismo level of detail. We all want arcade racing with cops. The first NFS game is genuinely very good. Simple arcade racing. We were quite happy with NFS Hot Pursuit 2. Police chases and racing. What more do you want from an NFS game? The latest NFS game, Most Wanted(Mk II) has returned to the roots of NFS gaming, and its really no surprise that it is very successful.

Codemaster has also given preference to gameplay for all their racing games. Race Driver: GRID shifted focus from racing to giving the player a unique experience with sights and sounds on race-day. So it might not be as pure a racing game as its predecessor, ToCA: Race Driver 3, but as a result it appeals to many more gamers. Even F1 2012 was designed to provide an experience of a Formula 1 driver, and was thus criticized for not being a true Formula 1 simulator. If it had been a Formula 1 simulator, no one apart from F1 drivers would have been able to play the game, and in any case you simply wouldn't know how realistic it is to a real Formula 1 car because a large majority of players haven't driven a Formula 1 car. Codemasters has struck a good balance of gameplay vs graphics. Even GRID 2 is a simple looking game, but all the new bits and bobs are under the hood.

F1 2012 Lotus F1

Time has come now, for simplistic gaming. Now achieving the right balance between gameplay and graphics is very important. Not only will the focus of the game developers be equally concentrated on gameplay and graphics and thus have a wider appeal, the emphasis on gameplay means that fun will come back to gaming.

It is hard to judge when a game has all the right elements to be successful. One of the main elements is its ability to entertain the player, to bring about a sense of fun. The only reason we play games is to have fun, plain and simple. So of course, every game has to be designed make the player have a good time. The only reason indie games are so popular is because indie game developers have nothing to lose and they are willing to head off toward a new direction of game design. Big game companies stake their reputation on every major game title, so they stick to a tried and tested formula which produces similar games. Who'd have thought Angry Birds would become popular. Sorry, thats an understatement. Angry Birds has entered into the history books and has become the prime selling point of merchandise manufactured by the Chinese. I've seen way too many Angry Bird theme stationery, clothing and food items. It is a very simple game, but it fulfilled a very crucial criteria. The simple to need to have some quick 5 minute gaming fun on a mobile device, anytime, anywhere. The graphics are nothing to write home about, Rovio simply made do with something that did the job, and was interpreted by players of all age groups. It's a simple, joyful, colourful game that fun to play.

Angry Birds Space

At the other end of the spectrum, games such as Infinity Blade exist. Complex, with insane graphics for a mobile device, it created quite a buzz when it was first revealed. But I never felt compelled to play it as much as I would love to play Angry Birds repeatedly. Rovio also released different versions of Angry Birds, with seasonal themes and partnerships with various sponsors. Last year, they sponsored Finnish Formula 1 drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen. Odd choice of drivers, but Rovio is a Finnish company, and Finns know what they're doing. I'm pretty sure the story of Angry Birds is probably a business case study at some university somewhere. It really is a glimpse at what future game titles will try to emulate, and to do that, they need to refocus their priorities.

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Mac Apps: The Essentials

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With the Mac App Store expanding day by day, it is becoming increasingly hard to figure out which applications are actually needed. So here's a small list of apps that I use on a day to day basis.

Media

Perian: This is a Quicktime player addon that enables to it play many video formats

MPlayerX: The most dependable and versatile media player out there. Plays everything, and anything.


DivX Player: Plays all your DivX files, and somehow manages to enhance the video quality.

Flip4Mac: If anyone sends you a .WMV file, this is what you use to open them.

iTunes: This is the best music player, bar none. It might be slightly sluggish, and cumbersome, but it does everything. Nothing can replace it.

Graphics

Pixelmator: Does everything Photoshop does, and perhaps even more, but is insanely simple to use. Mind blowing.

Sketch: The easiest and one of the most powerful vector graphics applications out there. It's so simple and easy to use. Although it's not perfect, its simplicity makes up for the lack of a few features.

Adobe Creative Suit: Although I don't use it that often, it's often handy if I need to do some professional work and deal with some specific file types. It's not my favourite, but it is essential.

iMeme: One does not simply....not make memes. Great sharing and uploading options.

Utilities

CleanMyMac: Perfect tool to keep your Mac running at speed. Does a full service, and gets rid of large files easily.

DaisyDisk: Well designed graphical interface that keeps track of your files on the hardrive. Another good tool to get rid of large and useless files that keep stockpiling.

FreeMemory: This is for the lesser Macs with barely any RAM. This tool clears the RAM cache. Useful if you want to starts a processor intensive application.

HandBrake: One the most powerful video converters, and a great tool to rip DVD's. It can also convert 30 fps files to a slightly higher 60 fps. It works very well on HD videos.

InsomniaX: This keeps your Mac awake and running even after closing the lid. Perfect for those overnight download marathons, and any other work that needs to run for a long time. There many other alternatives out there, but this is the best.

Keka: This can open any compressed file. Anything. One stop solution to open compressed files with exotic sounding extensions.

Password Assistant: This is actually an inbuilt function in the Mac OS that suggests passwords. Someone has converted it into a stand alone application. It helps you make passwords and gives great suggestions. It's also FIPS-181 compliant. Whatever that means.

Work

iWork: This is the coolest and the easiest application to make documents, presentations, and other crap that people make nowadays. Anything made on iWork looks unbelievably cool and slick. It eats Microsoft Office for breakfast.

Microsoft Office: The only glitch with iWork is that the über awesome presentations and documents made on them do not open properly on Word, and Powerpoint. Annoying. So you have to use Microsoft Office to to cater to those who still use Windows.

iA Writer: This is the art of zen writing. In full screen mode, it's just the text. There is no toolbar with infinite options. It's just you, the keyboard and what you write. Nothing else.

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Nokia N9 Vector Graphic

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Using Sketch, I created this Nokia N9 graphic. First time using Sketch to create something realistic.

Download link.

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Sketch Tutorial: Toilet Stick Figure

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Finished Vector!

This tutorial will show you how to use Sketch(Illustrator too) to make a simple stick figure man/woman.





First, open Sketch.

Now, make a simple circle and name it 'Face'. Also, make note of the Width and Height of all the assets throughout the tutorial, as I will be using a set proportion so that the figure looks just about right.

Draw a rounded rectangle, as 'Torso'. Once again, use the same width and height values.

Now draw the legs.

Make sure you round it off to about 23 px. The legs do look very small, and I will rectify this error later. To avoid facing this problem, adjust leg height value to 240.

For the right leg, simply duplicate the leg you drew first, and drag it into position.

Draw the arm. Make note of the width, height and roundedness.

Once again, duplicate the arm, and drag it into position.

Now, this step is an important one. This will crucially define how the stick figure will look like. The bit that connects the arm to the torso. Draw a circle, press 'Return/Enter' and use your mouse to mould the circle into a shape that will uniformly connect the arm to the torso. If you cannot manage to do it properly, use the one I have made. Download the file at the end of the tutorial.

Once you've drawn it for one arm, duplicate it, and flip it horizontally and use it for the other arm-torso connection.

Now select both the connector and the respective arm, and Combine them using 'Union'. Do it for both the arm-connectors.

Now Combine 'Union' the arm/connectors to the torso.

Now drag the legs into place, and once again Combine 'Union' them into the torso.

Now the leg height correction. Select both the legs, and adjust the height value to 240. You can also adjust the leg height value to 240 when you first draw the legs.

Now the finished result should look something like this,

To finish it off, on the right-hand column, deselect 'Border' and change 'Fill' to black, or whatever colour takes your fancy.

Ta-da!

Download link for the Stick Figure.

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Pixelmator Tutorial-Graphic Novel Effect

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In this tutorial I will show you how to make your photos look like they've been drawn by a graphic novelist or an anime artist. It's very simple and it only needs Pixelmator. Fantastic tool this.

The image used here.

Open Pixelmator.

Open the image.

Use the Sharpen tool. I recommend that the sharpen level should be close to 90%.

Use the Threshold filter. Here is where you need to decide how you want the image to look like.

 In this case I think the image should have more black areas. Click OK and see the image.

The final finished image. Undo and change if you want to. Export the image in the format of your choice.

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processing sketch : transparent circles

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I made this using processing. Ok, this isn't really processing per se, but it is processing.js. Both use the same coding just that processing.js is a lighter and more efficient way to display your processing sketches on a web page. In this simple sketch circles of varying opacity are drawn on the screen and the position of the circles are determined by the position of your mouse. The colour and the opacity are random. To clear the screen and to start again, press the key 'C'.

The code is given below. I have explained some lines of code so you understand what I have created.

void setup() //method to initialize the sketch. Only runs 1 time.
{
  size(600, 600); //determines size of sketch
  background(255); //background colour
  smooth(); //smoothens everything out
}
void draw() //method to draw on sketch. Runs every time till program is stopped.
{
  noStroke(); //circles don't have an outline
  float x = random(20, 60); // random size with limits from 20 to 60
  ellipse(mouseX, mouseY, x, x); // circles with position determined by mouse
  fill(random(200), random(200), random(255), random(100)); // random colour and opacity
  if (keyPressed) //detects if a key is pressed
  {
    if (key=='c'||key=='C') //now looks for key 'c'
    {
      background(255); //clears screen
    }
  }
}

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Processing

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Have you ever fantasized about being a computer programmer and create stuff simply by typing a few commands? Yet, like me, you hate the complexity and the learning curve of the Java, C++ and the rest? Fear not, for processing is here!

Processing is Java based compiler which requires basic Java coding know-how to create insanely cool graphics within minutes of downloading the compiler. It's extremely simple to learn processing, and with a few months of solid practice you can create anything you want with a few lines of code. Sounds too good to be true right? However, apart from a few minor problems with some geeky stuff which won't bother you anyway, it is fantastic. You can do 3D modeling on it as well!

So download processing and code away!


Here are a few examples,

Tree using recursion

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