Lecture

Video Game Analysis: Visual Aspects

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In course

HUM-380: Video games and gamification

Ce cours propose d'acquérir des compétences en création de jeux vidéo, en invitant les étudiant·e·s à mettre leurs connaissances au service d'un projet collectif de recherche-création centré sur la ludification (gamification) d'un contenu scientifique. ...

Description

This lecture delves into the analysis of video games, focusing on the visual and audio elements. It covers the concepts of game design, storytelling in video games, social and political dimensions of gaming, and the different types of game imagery. The instructors explore the theories of Johan Huizinga, Jesper Juul, and Roger Caillois, discussing the rules, outcomes, and emotional engagement in games. They also examine the various camera perspectives, narrative structures, and dynamic storytelling techniques used in video games, using examples from popular titles like Bioshock, The Elder Scrolls, and Assassin's Creed.

Instructor

Yannick Rochat

Expertise Digital Humanities, graph theory, social network analysis, character networks, centrality, datavisualisation, social media studies, maritime networks, game studies. Current work I successfully defended a Ph.D. thesis called "Character networks and centrality" in September 2014. It was co-directed by Prof. Henri Volken (UNIL) and Prof. Frédéric Kaplan (EPFL) for a doctoral degree in Applied Mathematics to Humanities and Social Sciences. This research was focused on Les Confessions from Jean-Jacques

Official source

Related concepts (29)

Game art design

Game art design is a subset of game development involving the process of creating the artistic aspects of video games. Video game art design begins in the pre-production phase of creating a video game. Video game artists are visual artists involved from the conception of the game who make rough sketches of the characters, setting, objects, etc. These starting concept designs can also be created by the game designers before the game is moved into actualization. Sometimes, these concept designs are called "programmer art".

Narrative

A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc.). Narratives can be presented through a sequence of written or spoken words, through still or moving images, or through any combination of these. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare (to tell), which is derived from the adjective gnarus (knowing or skilled). Narration (i.

Game design document

A game design document (often abbreviated GDD) is a highly descriptive living software design document of the design for a video game. A GDD is created and edited by the development team and it is primarily used in the video game industry to organize efforts within a development team. The document is created by the development team as result of collaboration between their designers, artists and programmers as a guiding vision which is used throughout the game development process.

Story structure

A story structure is how to unify a story's elements under an expected order, which can include events, theme, tone, character, and so on, which is not always located in the plot. These can be also called Narrative structure which is usually presented in written form or dramatic structure which is presented in audiovisual from. This is more of an overview of how story structure works in a cross-cultural and general sense. Story is a narrative, which can be true or fictitious, which can appear in prose, verse or script, designed to amuse, inform the consumer.

Game balance

Game balance is a branch of game design with the intention of improving gameplay and user experience by balancing difficulty and fairness. Game balance consists of adjusting rewards, challenges, and/or elements of a game to create the intended player experience. Game balance is generally understood as introducing a level of fairness for the players. This includes adjusting difficulty, win-loss conditions, game states, economy balancing, and so on to work in tandem with each other. The concept of game balance depends on the game genre.

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