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Visual

Iconic

Visual interface is very important to any game, it is the information that is needed for your survival in a game and/or winning the game, through text, colour and size. This will be certain things like, your health bar will almost always be on your screen in some way or another, may that been shown as a health bar (Main way to show health) Skyrim, health circle e.g Guildwars 1/2 and Diablo 1/2/3 or even when you screen starts to go red when you are close to death such as in Call Of Duty. Sometimes your skills will also be displayed on the screen, this gives you the advantage of knowing what skill your about to perform and you can select which one you actually want to perform eg Guildwars 1/2. All these visuals are what is important to the game and the things that are required for your survival.

Colour Psychology

Colours can foreshadow what may happen in the game through the lighting and the surrounding colour, a dark atmosphere could represent coming danger and a darkness over your head. Bright lighting could represent that you are in a safe zone and are way from any real danger (Bioshock). Colour can be shown in the surround, red can show danger or love and blue can show calm or clean. But colour is mainly used to show the important information on screen such as health will most likely always be shown as red in a game, this is because the colour red is the colour of blood, and losing this make you look like you’re running out of blood and the less you have the less life you have left in you.




Inference

This is where the game tries to predict what your next move will be, in some cases this is to give the game some what of a challenge and giving the enemy the upper advantage in a game, such as in Fifa, when you are trying to score a goal the game tries to predict where you player will kick the ball and try to save it, instead of the goal keepers saving abilities being generated at random. This makes the game more challenging for the player making them want to continue playing the game and more realistic .






Player Viewpoint

Player viewpoint is the way you see the game, whether that is 1st person where you are in your players body and you can see what they are see, this is a good interface because you feel like you are actually fighting for the survival of your player, you are put in his shoes and you must make sure you survive such as Call Of Duty or Halo. 3rd Person is when you out of your players body and are an overview of your character, where you can see more of whats around you then whats only infront of you, this is in games such as Diablo and Guildwars.

Camera Techniques

Camera Techniques are what makes up the story of the game and takes you through the journey, this is shown through cut scenes, where the game is side tracked by a short clip, these clips are normal important to a game and give you more detail on the story line and what is happening in the game. Camera angles can also what what is happening in a cut scene and will emphasis the scene more, such as a small close up face to face cut scene will shows character interaction and show who they are close to/talking to one game that uses this technique well is the game called The Witcher, as you interact with a character then you get different angle to show how personal the conversation is, this sort thing also happens when new event acure in the game. When the cut scene becomes more wide and open this will maybe be the begging of a battle such as in Final Fantasy where cut scenes are used a lot through the whole game franchise.





Lighting Effects
Lighting effect are quite important to the game, this can determine how you feel, and what feel you are getting from the game, by this I mean when you are in a tunnel and the lights are flashing on and off like the power keeps cutting you get the feeling that you know something bad is going to happen or there is something bad down there, and this effect can once again foreshadow what effects might happen if you continue playing the game further. Such game that I've played that does using light effect well is the game of Diablo 3, in this game we have two main character, one that's called Diablo, his character is show to be evil through light and mist that contains the colour of red and black to show that he is truly evil and from the depths of hell. We also have another character that is called Tyrael, and this character is from the heavens and is show in an angelic form, shown through a pure white light that erupts all around him.

Physical

Vibration

Physical is where the game tries to make you feel more like you are part of the game and in the game rather than you getting bored and leaving the game after a short time, this is done through a rumble effect, this is where the game will shake the controller which will either be a joystick or a game pad and it will shake it according to the effects that are happening within the game, may that be an earthquake when your trying to escape, making you more into the game making you really want to escape the cave and save you character or you are being shot by an enemy plane such as in battlefield, this gives you the advantage of being known you are getting shot at rather then constantly concentrating on you health bar.

Haptic
Another way a game tries to get more into a game in when it used force feed back, where the joystick forces itself back in place this is seen in flying games when you are heading towards the ground you will get force feedback when you are trying to pull up away from the ground giving you the effect that you are actually in the plane and are finding it difficult to lift the plane back to a safe zone. A game that uses quite abit of haptic in it's game play is a game called Crimson Skies, this a fighting game where you take control of planes, and as you plumit to the ground the joystick becomes harder to pull back, this gives the effect that you are actually in a plane and once again added to the realism of the game and the game play itself.

Audio

Ambient
Audio is one of the main things that make the game so realist, this could be the sound of a gunshot, the sound of animals or the sound or running and breathing, these are things that make a game more and more realist, a game called Battlefield 3 uses this technique well, as you are running you can hear the footstep that you are making and as in really life you footstep become louder as you do run, also when you are running you breathing becomes louder the more you run, to show that you running out of energy. These things make you feel like you are actually your character and that you are actually in the game and can hear all these things that are happening around you. Sound can also for shadow some event such as silence could represent some danger.
 


Dialogue

Dialogue is one of the most important parts of games to this very and most likely will be forever, the dialogue is important because this tell us the story of a game, not only that but it can show emotion and how the character is feeling at that time, but another thing is that it can foreshadow the events that may acure in the future of the game such as you might know you will betrayed. One game that uses dialogue in the game really well is Star Wars: Jedi Academy 2, this game uses the dialogue to tell the story of your main character not only this but the emotions of the characters are show really well, one such emotion is of the character of Jan, the female character so quite sensitive emotions toward her male companion and this shows that she is in love with him but is holding back her feelings.


  




 Foley effects
Foley effects are there to emphasis sound making you hear what you need to know, such as in the game The Walking Dead when you are walking up and down the stairs you here the foot steps and when your character is trying to sneak up the stairs and the stair creek it comes out really loudly, this is more to help you to not make a mistake that can alter the games outcome and your game play experience, this type of effect makes you feel more involved and care about your character more, rather then not caring what happen to your character and doing what the hell you like.






Music
Music is a big part of game and always has been, music is what makes the game funner to play, a fasted pace music is normal used when you are being chased or trying to escape, they use this music because you makes you want to get out of the game fast and not just doddle about looking around the place, this can also can tell you how close the pursuer is and this is done by speeding up the music making faster and faster every time them are getting closer to you, and this starts to make you panic more and more, and from this you actually start to care about your character, you want him to escape because you think the pursuer is actually coming for you. Other music such as calm slow pace music normal shows that the place is clean and safe. One game that I have played that uses music to really get the character into the game a persuade them to do what the game actually wants you to do is a game called Serious Sam, in this game you are flooded by waves and waves of enemies and instead of running away from them and hiding the game starts to play music, metal music that makes you feel like you are indistrutable and that nothing can stop you, and this inspires you to kill the monsters no matter what.



Mood
Mood of a game can be shown through various things, one obvious one would be through sound, this isn't restricted to just dialog but everything you hear, such as music or the sounds from the surroundings, but dialog is the biggest one this is because you can show the mood of the character through the tone of the voice and what they are saying. Another good one is with gestures, such as hand movements, this would be used if they designers would like to cover up the mood of a character discretely without the player actually realizing they have actually put it in there. A game that uses a verity of things to show the mood of a character is Bioshock, you can tell the mood of a character called the "Big Daddy" by the way that the eyes are glowing, if his eyes are green he is calm but protective but when they are red you're in trouble.





Emotion 
Emotion can also be shown through sound, happiness is normally shown through the sound of laughter coming from someone and sarcasm can be shown through clapping, Emotions are also shown through the tone of voice, and angry voice will be more deep and louder and a sad will be more high pitched and quieter. This is one of the most important effect in a game, this is because this can foreshadow the events that will happen later in the game. One game that really uses emotion well is the The Witcher, and in a certain part of the game you have to listen to two sides of a story, the villagers side which sound angry, while on the other hand you have a witch that sounds scared and from these emotion you have to choose who you believe and who's side you will pick.

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