Design Exploration

For this post I will be discussing a series of flash based games created by the company Artix Entertainment.

http://www.artixentertainment.com/

Artix Entertainment have created a series of flash based browser games and browser ased MMORPGs (Massively multi-player online role playing game). Each gaame while keeping the same formula are vastly diffrent in content.

Adventure quest (www.battleon.com) was the original, a fantasy singly player rpg where players can create their own hero, roam the world fighting monsters, complete quests and even change/earn new classes. They earn currency known as gold and can buy new weapons and armor as they level up.

As AQ gained popularity Artix began working on DragonFable.

(www. Dragonfable.com)

Set in the same world as AdventureQuest DragonFable boasted improve graphics and a unique 2.5D Play stile as opposed to the original 2d click an arrow to move style.

Afterwords Artix Entertainment Launched into the 22nd century with MechQuest. (www.mechquest.com) In the same play style as DragonFable, players were able to creat their own pilot who after a accident at star fleet academy is allowed to pilot a MechSuit. Much like the days of AdventureQuest you complete missions earn currency and are able to upgrade your suit.

Each of the Artix Entertainemnt games provide serious gameplay while also having a sense of humor. You will constantly be reminded you are playing a game. Early on in DragonAge you will come face to face with a dragon, your character will comment on how its odd for a low level character to meet a strong monster to which the dragon responds "See you in 30 levels noob." Something you normal don't hear in the realms of a game.

Currently Artix is working on online multi-player games for the AdvertureQuest world. Games where you can team up with friends to take on monsters and do quests.

All and all I believe Artix Entertainment to be on the forefront of browser based gaming. Providing hours of entertainment without the need for an expensive game console.

To kill a frog without the blender

The website that I have chosen to present is Killfrog.com. From one of my class mates posts about a frog in a blender, I think the creators of that mini interactive video created Frog studios. I found this site by my brother, who found it by his best friend, during my late elementary to early middle school years. The graphic gore and crude humor are the same as the frog in the blender and the site also has other activities and films that the user could interact with. The videos are parodies of other films like Blues Clues, Survivor, Heroes, and also about the Iraqi freedom. The interactivity of this site is very childish, but fun for preteens and adults. The studio is also with the website, and it also has a How to animate file, and the studio file. You could even send the creators mail, though I don't think that they reply back because I never tried it. This is all that I can blog about for the studio and how it's related to our flash, well, you'll find out soon.

New Media - Entertainment Technology

For this blog, I decided to cover a new technology that we use for entertainment, specifically in music. The technology I am about to discuss covers the substantial progress in holographic projections.

If you've ever seen a hologram, then you know how unrealistic it looks. They glitch and never do well under strong illumination. However, in Japan, holograms have been taken to a whole new level.

Vocaloid is a Japanese program that provides you with a singer for your music. Simply come up with a tune, then insert the melody into this program along with the lyrics, and then the program organizes a synthesized voice to sing your song. The program comes with a music library that holds more than one type of voice to use, or rather, singer. Each voice is associated with a character, with one most popular being Hatsune Miku, and the vocals were made by sampling the voices of real singers. As Vocaloid grew in the Japan, the company decided to really bring the singers of their programs to life by creating a Vocaloid concert.

This concert brings the characters onstage by projecting them as holograms. But they're not just ordinary holograms. These holograms, or singers, can sustain bright light and their movements are also very realistic. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI

If you look closely, you can even see that they even put detail in the insides of her sleeves.


I think that this will help to completely change the way we view entertainment. Multimedia programs will become more geared to creating scenarios where the viewers can feel as if they are in the situation as opposed to right now where many are simply concerned with the realism. As 3D and IMAX movies encourage us to become more involved in what we view, I think that this technology will have real footing later on in the future.

This holographic technology will also be helpful in more practical ways, such as providing the model for a house or an apartment building that has not yet been built, or even giving a better view of what our water systems look like and can help us improve weaknesses in our pipelines. Or help us analyze other areas that need to be improved and updated such as bridges and other roadways. The way we handle our blueprints will be radically different.

Presentations utilizing this technology will be helpful in creating more effective arguments where the listener can be directly transferred into a simulated copy of the situation. For example, if someone were to argue about the deforestation that occurs in the rainforests, that presenter would be able to transfer his or her audience to places where trees have been completely cut down and show people just how vast this occurrence is.

Studio/Artist Exploration

Studio/Artist Exploration

Fantasy Interactive http://www.f-i.com/ is an internet design studio with offices in New York City as well as in Stockholm, Sweden. In its 11 year history, has amass a very impressive list of clients. Its clients are quite varied. The studio has produced works for auto makers such as Porsche, Ford, and Volvo; retailers such as Nordstrom and Electrolux; media companies as NBC, Disney, Fox, BBC and the History Channel among others.

http://www.fox.com/

http://www.history.com/interactives/civil-war-150#/home

Among the works in it vast portfolio, I found the revamping of the Fox Channel site and its most recent work for the History Channel most interesting. Since I was a frequent visitor to the Fox Channel website, I do notice it is much more intuitive to navigate.

The brand Identity is visible yet not overpowering. The navigation is simple but contents material is easily found within just a few clicks. The layout of the pages are much more slim lined, even with as much material as it need to fit in the website. Even though each show on the network can be found on the “Show” tab, I found the duplicate shortcuts on the bottom of the page helpful.

In addition to the top banner promoting the current shows, I think the show schedule is just as important. Its location just below the banner is perfect. Unlike the ones on other network, you are able to navigate by day, and have the choice to see the full schedule if you choose to.

The second website I thought was fascinating was the interactive site FI Studio created the History Channel. It was for the commemoration of the 150^th anniversary of the American Civil War.

On its opening page, you can select from various subjects from the menu bar which takes you to the corresponding pages with relevant facts and figure presented in very nice graphics. I like that if there is additional information available, they are presented in a small pop-up window if you choose to see it. The color scheme is very appropriate being red, white and blue, but in much darker shades, with some yellow as accent color.

I especially like the animated navigation in the homepage, and the individual bottoms with the different size fonts, and alternates on the different buttons. It is very nice looking.

In addition, it also includes “Most Popular Topic” links in the middle of the page, for topics relate to the Civil War. There are also the “Related Videos” and “Related Photo” sections that I think are very welcoming contents visitors would enjoy. This is another good example of a website that provides a ton of content, but doesn’t look cluttered or bog down.

Design Exploration

My design exploration is about the Chuckville website, the theme is all about the actor, Chuck Norris. While you walk around chuckville you collect a series of funny data about this martial artist master. This website is sponsored by T-Mobile and here you can download the music used in the design of the website and also you can challenge Chuck Norris into a fight as well, you can upload your picture in and paste it to your cartoon. At the beginning I though that it was impossible to defeat Chuck but after several attempts I did, careful he fight dirty as well. I found this website through the FWA website the address is www.chuckville.com

Design Exploration

Bestiario is a Barcelona/Lisbon-based company. His website shows the collection of sites that they have created. They combine art and science to design and create interactive information spaces. You can play and investigate these spaces by using the scrolling bar or by clicking the tags on the upper right side of the screen.

“We have developed a powerful framework based on graph theory, topological algorithms, physical models, and geometrical and geographical representations to provide the optimum solutions to our customers.” (Bestiario.orghttp://Bestiario.org )

Sphere of Relations (This is one of the interactive sites that we can find inside Bestiario.)

“Spheres shaped by dialogue, a net of words combination. The richness of words consists in their relations with one another. A single pair of words placed together is enough to create narrative, reflections, theories, poetry, humor, or even the arbitrary…" Spheres is a project in constant evolution.

Select two words in the sphere and find their relationship through other people answers or write a new one.

http://moebio.com/spheres/english.html#

New Media Exploration

The Wilderness Down Town: A Web Music Video for the Band Arcade Fire

A Google Chrome Experiment by Director Chris Milk and his Google Partners

I stumbled upon The Wilderness Down Town through The Favourite Website Awards.

This is an interactive video that uses Google Maps to create a personal video experience.

I had no idea at first what I was getting into. I was intrigued when I read on the landing page that it was created in HTML5. Little birds fly around your screen and dodge your curser. This must be a fun site! "Enter the address of the home where you grew up search" said a little navigation bar. I entered my last address of my home town of Clovis; my old stomping grounds and tuned in.

I discovered the site while browsing with Firefox and wondered why I waited an eternity at 97% loading before I noticed the caption "a Google Chrome Experiment". I'm not sure why I was in Firefox because I certainly like Chrome better. The Wild

erness Down Town is an experimental website that only works in Google Chrome. Exploring the site on a friend's laptop later, the website will actually prompt / advise you to download Google Chrome if you do not already have it installed. If you disregard this message, it will ask "try anyways?"- but it didn't work in Internet Explorer at all.

"You do get a little bit of the feeling of, 'Wow, I felt a little bit like I was there again,'" said Andy Berndt, vice president of Google's creative lab.

I can only begin to speculate how it was created. It's a strange HTML5 and Flash hybrid site.

It somehow brings in data from Google Maps to predictively populate the search bar with addresses as you type on the landing page. It uses Flash to open and close new windows to create an ever-changing-collage-esque experience of prerecorded videos incorporated with satellite and ground level map imagery. Its really interesting how the video will use map location video from the address you input on the main page. Even the map images are commanded to rotate and pan. Some map images superimpose the main character running across the landscape or birds flying in an ariel perspective.

The windows open in specific locations at specific times. I would imagine your inputted address alters the scripting of the video during it's lengthy loading time so that it can go stream / pull your customized footage. At first I thought each window was it's own page because some of the pages have page names which give credit to Google and such. But I'm not sure about that, because each window has the same URL. There are 7 windows in all. All seem to be present throughout the video, but they are black and small when unused. The visibility depends on some sort of stacking order. There is also a flash media player that you can mute and play the music which the movie plays to. All of the footage is timed to play at certain parts of the music.

I hope you enjoyed this odd website as much as I did.

View The Wilderness Down Town / Mira Costa Oceanside View