functions of game covers

Game covers are one of the most important features within a game's marketing and advertisement, game covers need to have a memorable cover, to create a lasting feeling when viewed and to persuader the audience to buy the game. From what i have talked about in older posts it is clear that covers are as important as the tv adverts and other forms of advertisements.

However, not all game covers follow the same rules as what i have described in older posts. There are covers that choose to break certain conventions to go against the grain and try to stand out against the covers that follow the conventions.

for example here is the cover to the newly released Elder Scrolls V: Skryim

This cover still conforms to a few conventions;

Striking cover

Logo

Title

But that is all, everything else is left to be a mystery and to cause a enigma for the viewer to what exactly this game is about

This method of the way this cover is formed and the content of the cover makes it a very unique and memorable cover.

Technical research into Game tv adverts

Tv adverts for game can be anything from setting the theme/scene of the game with some story line hints or they can be game footage with a sound track, for one side. On the other hand a game advert can be a silly mild spoof of reality mixed in with the games reality. For instance take this Starcraft 2 advert (Starcraft is a series of games made by Blizzard. Blizzard also own World of Warcraft and other games within its series)

This Korean advert shows us a great number of interesting points with game advertisements. This shows the spoofy side of game advertisements compared to the Valve advertisements i have shown in older posts. This advert plays on the iconography that the Starcraft games before hand have developed within the fans minds. The length of the advert is what i like the most as it allows for a short sharp punchy advert to strike a note with the audience and cause a sense of consuming interest that needs to be filled from learning about the game. Another thing to note is the style of the advert. This style of semi-real time filming creates certain feelings within the advert. Also this advert seems to follow a theme of other adverts released within the area: Korea. Most of the adverts in Korea are completely different to the adverts from the western side of the globe.

Things i will take from the advert will be the comedic side of the advert and also the length of the advert. These seem to create a lasting impression onto the audience and makes the advert more powerful and potent

This is a trailer for a great little game called Terraria, this is a trailer for the upcoming update 1.1 This trailer shows of the gameplay with messages through it talking about the game and the updates that are in it. This trailer shows spoilers and hints to what is coming up in this trailer. I like how this trailer is put together; in game footage with text screens, musical for the only sounds to be heard throughout the trailer.

For my trailer i will try to use the musical style of that being the only sound, unless i feel it is needed, and the hints and mild spoiler to the

This trailer for Elder Scrolls V - Skryim shows what a big budget company can achieve for an advert. This, i feel, is a truly amazing and iconic advert. It captures the feeling of the game and sets the plot to the story in solid rock. The musical elements of the trailer really add to the theatrical elements of the trailer. The choice of having a orchestral musical with the chanting/singing score helps to add to the points of tension and hype when the dragonborn shouts. This trailer is a mixture of gameplay and specifically made animations. I feel this trailer will stand as a measuring stone for future big budget game releases.

I would like to use the combination of trailer made animations and gameplay with the awe inspiring music but depending on the time it would take to make the animations along side of the gameplay it might not be as effective as i would want it to be

My second tv advert will use a similar style of to that of the starcraft 2 advert, the live action shots will take influence from Mr Toledano's 'Faces of Gamers', these sets of photos show the various faces that gamers make whilst playing their games. However, these tend to show the gamers in a bad light due to the many expressions of anger/frustration within a game, my aim is to take that concept and put it into a positive light for the purpose of my advert

My main aim with the second tv advert is to show a gamer having fun and a gamer that is having a seemingly hard time with a game, i will use these faces to show the effects on a person's happiness if they play the game i will be advertising

http://www.mrtoledano.com/

SMART

SMART objectives are incredibly useful for project management, i will now be using SMART objectives to help me through the project

SMART for week beginning 21/11/11


 -By the end of this week i want to have my blog up to the stage of design and production -

Specific:                        x   
Measurable:                  x
Achivable:  
Reasonable:                   x
Timed:                           x

Marking criteria

Print

Level 4

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in most of the following technical skills:

• using IT appropriately for the task set;

• showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design;

• showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;

• accurate use of language and register;

• appropriately integrating illustration and text;

• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

• shooting material appropriate to the task set;

• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

• manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including within text, within particular IT programmes, cropping and resizing.

Film/Television/Video

Level 4

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in most of the following technical skills:

• holding a shot steady, where appropriate;

• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

• shooting material appropriate to the task set;

• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;

• using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately;

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task.

Technical research into Game covers

After looking at the evolution of game covers and how they have changed throughout the years it is easy to pick out a few ideas that all game covers abide by.

Apart from the legal things that have to be on the game covers we can see that not all game covers have the generic structure of; title, main character(or place), logo. However we can see that they all aim for the same effect.#

• Be striking
• Grab attention
• Persuade 
• Entice
• Plant the idea of wanting to buy the game or to make the viewer want to look up information about the product

Technical research into magazine adverts

Magazine adverts have a great number of reasons why they influence media product consumption of the targeted product.

The purpose of a media advert (from what i have learned from the breakdown of the Half Life 2 magazine advert) is to generate revenue for the magazine company and also possible buyers for the game advertised. A good advert is one that can grab the attention and also still be iconic to the franchise if there are previous products which have a group following for.

The picture above is a art work poster from the game bastion, bastion is made by a small indie games company called Super Giant Games. Super Giant Games didn't have a very large advertising budget and so (to my knowledge) there wasn't any magazine adverts for it. However if there was a larger budget i would expect this to the image put into the magazine advert. It has a striking image, bright interesting colours and features the main characters and gives a sense of what the game is like. From looking at this potential advert i feel i want to try and achieve the same effect for my magazine advert. 

Adverts within magazines usually have a small image relating to the product advertised on a large spread, this technique is very effective as it generates enigmas for which the reader can answer in the upcoming magazine numbers or by other means advertised within the advert

Magazine advert breakdown

After many hours of searching I have finally been able to find a magazine advert for me to break down and talk about. This is a magazine advertisement for Half Life 2. More specifically this is a teaser advert for half life 2. From the onset we can see that this advert has a large amount of questions surrounding it. This advert was clearly made for past fans of the series. The crowbar shown is the very first weapon that the character 'Gordon freeman' receives within the game. This advert has a minimalstic approach that works so well due to the iconography of the crowbar and the importance of it for the fans of the games

The clean style of the magazine makes it very striking and ensures the attention of the reader. The caption 'Next month' uses the borrowed audience ideology to draw audiences that are drawn from the game's fans and turns them into possible fans of the magazine and helps to generate revenue for the magazine as word of mouth may help spread news of the upcoming feature that the magazine's existing fan's tell the fans of the game and so generates a snowball effect.

Found an amazing reference site to look

http://www.next-gen.biz/games

A few video trailers

Half life 2 - Free yourself
This was a trailer for the mac release of steam. This also advertised the game Half Life 2 now being available to play on Mac computers

Team  Fortress 2 - Apple Mac trailer
This is a trailer for the Mac release for steam. This also showed a sneak peak of new items within the game

Team Fortress 2 - Meet the Engineer
There are several 'Meet the' trailers for the game team fortress 2, these trailers show the personality of the class that you can play within the game. These trailers have been a huge hit for fans as they are fore most
comedic and then secondly about the game itself. There are a few other trailers from TF2 (Team Fortress 2) that i will be putting within this post that i believe show the trademark signs of a good advert

Team Fortress 2 - Meet the Medic
This is the latest trailer from valve, unlike other trailers this shows a small narrative within the trailer of the medic and how he tested out one of his in game abilities. These sort of trailers show the small back story to the game and it can be said that this trailer was more fan orientated rather than for a newer audience

Team Fortress 2 - Meet the Sniper
This trailer unlike the last is a documentary spoof narrative to it. This can be said to be for a newer audience but still have a very comedic and interesting hook to the narrative.

Super Meat Boy - Teaser trailer
This trailer shows the game and the narrative within it. This is a trailer made with actual game footage rather than the specially made (with some game footage mixed in) TF2 trailers

Results

The graphs and charts show below are 

What gender are you?
	The demographic i originally aimed my questionnaire at was 17 - 25 males. However, these results of showing female responses should help to open the pool of results to allow for other views to possibly open up my demographic to a wider auidence

What is your age?

The demographic for my trailer and subsidiary products is between 17 - 25, however i decided to add other age ranges to see if i could broaden my age range on my demographic. It seems that there is a wide range of ages between 15 and higher than 25 within the results, This means that there is insight from other ages that i have no expected. This will give me a more detailed look at the publics perception and views on game adverts, trailers and reviews

How would you describe youself?
	I feel that this question was quite important as i have learnt from personal experience that people who play games know more about gaming news and new releases. These results show the majority of people are casual gamers. Causal gamers usually have a reasonable grasp on the types of games that are released and what trailers/magazine reviews do well and for what reasons

What is your favorite game genre(s)?

Knowledge on game genres and information about the number of people playing certain genres has given a  small insight on to the type of gamer they are. People game in different ways similar to class differences. It seems to be that the majority of first person shooter  gamers tend to be quite narrow minded about any new game they see released. However people who play other types of genres seem to be more of a open minded gamer and so are more active when it comes to new game releases

If you selected any option(s) above, type the genre you play the most

RPG'sManyRPGactionmanyRPGManyRole Playing GamesManyRole PlayingFirst Person ShootermanyadventureadventureSandbox or adventureFPSFirst Person ShooterFirst Person ShooterReal time strategy

The results above show the most commonly played game genre. Looking at these results we can see that; adventure, role playing games, first person shooters as the main genres. This should give the results a wide scope on the types of adverts that these gamers have viewed

Do you play a lot of 'indie games'
	Indie games are games made by small companies who cannot afford the big budget marketing campaigns. These results show that the people questioned understand what a indie game is and hopefully understand the types of advertising they do.

How often do you watch TV?
	TV adverts are vital for new releases of games to gain popularity and to generate a buzz for their release. The amount of hours watching TV means a increase in chance to find game adverts on TV channels

Do you see many game advertisements on TV?

No.Battlefield 3nosports, Madden, NBANot too much, maybe one or two a daynoaround 7, not sure of namesnoNoNoTypical AAA titles: Gears of war ect..NoNoNo9om Battlefield 3YesYes - After 8pm Call of Du...

I asked this question to find out any memorable adverts they may have stuck in people's minds. I have looked at the adverts mentioned and found adverts of a similar caliber to breakdown and examine. I think this question could have been better if i have specified it a little further

What channels do you seem to see most game advertisements on?

I'd like to see more.Channel 4not reallyESPNchannel 4toonI would like to see far more adverts on TV yes. The gaming market is a huge one, and needs to reach out to many people on more platforms than...

By checking through the demographics for each TV channel i can understand further more how adverts are aimed at
audiences and apply this to my products. I should have also asked if they could have described them and try explain the better bits of the adverts from their opinions

Do you read many magazines?

Yes.A fewyesYesYesYesYesYesyesyesONMOccasionallyOccasionallyOccasionallyNo

Getting a grasp on how many people view magazines on a large number to understand their knowledge on advertisements in magazines. I should have asked if they read types aimed at the games industry

What type of magazine are they?

Music.Musicfashion. film.musicfine artsHomes and GardenHomes and GardenRunningFashion/LifestyleFashionfashion, gossip, film, music, photographymovieGamingtech/gamingTech, Science

Asking questions about the magazine type is very important as i am able to find magazines that i am able to put my projects into. These results seem to show a trend for tech/music/game types of magazines. I could have specified the question a little more by asking about the magazine's name or popularity

Do you see many game adverts within these magazines?

Not particularlyYesno and yes, depends on the type of magazineNoNoNoNoNo and noyesyesyesyes...No

This question i feel was poorly phrased as it asks only for a vague answer. These results however show that there are game adverts within the magazines they read. This isn't a useful answer however as the last two questions should have been linked to make more sense of the results

If so what magazines were they?

No IdeaPC Enthusiast /NoN/AempireempireONMEDGE

These 3 questions in this series asking about magazines should have been put into the same question as i would be able to relate them together better. However they still provide some useful information as i can explain what makes magazine adverts good in the eyes of the public

What would you say is an important feature with a magazine advertisement?
	This question has helped me to pinpoint what works well with magazine adverts. This has helped me to understand what i need to include in the magazine advert i make.

Do you buy many retail copies of games?

Yes.NononopeyessomenoyesYes. I like to have 'Hard Copies' of my games.YesYesfewNoNoNoNo, I play on other people'snononoyesyesNo

By asking about how many people in this questionnaire buy retail games i can understand the level of knowledge they have and take into account the results shown within certain levels of acknowledgement. However, i should have asked how often they do buy retail copies as it would related better

If so, do you tend to buy games with striking game covers or games with covers with seem interesting?

It is defiantly a bonus.Imaginative usually I go based on reviewslikelyno/games that seem interestingYesStriking Covers Games that I know about, I usually know what I want before i go in.more review...

this question was helpful for me to get a few points i can breakdown about conventions of a game cover, this question was phrased properly and was useful. The graph below also helps me to understand the amount of people who supported different aspects of game covers What would you say is an important feature with a game's cover?

What would you say is the role of a good TV advertisement for a game?
This graph shows the results for what the people asked thought of how a game adverter should show to the viewer. This was a good question as i am able to have a rough guide to what i need to include in the advert