The Power Behind The Games - Game Platforms

This next post will serve as a quick brush up on what a gaming platform is, just like we had a quick recap on what a genre is in an earlier post. Your probably wondering at this minute why is he taking the time to explain what a gaming platform is, after all it is the 21st century and we all know what a gaming platform is, right? Again this post will be short and sweet then for all the experienced folk but those who need to brush up on their knowledge, listen up.

The origins of video games can be dated back to the late 1940s but with the first recognisable home console being introduced into the industry in 1972. This console was known as the Magnavox Odyssey developed by Ralph Baer, since then there have been many consoles created, below is a picture of the Magnavox Odyssey.

In conjunction with the above information, gaming platforms are needed to run video games off making them playable to the users. Without these platforms you would be able to buy games but not play them, which is pointless really. Gaming platforms can cover home consoles, handheld devices (Nintendo DS, Playstation Vita, etc) and mobile devices (iPhone & tablets). Over time these gaming platforms have become very advanced due to technical advancements and hardware improvements. Such advancements with these platforms have allowed games today to currently achieve life-like visuals compared to what the hardware was like back in the 1980s and 1990s, with these platforms still currently advancing due to that technology is always evolving. Below is a screenshot showing the graphical improvements of games particularly character visuals overtime due to the advancement of the hardware/platforms and game engines they have been running off. (Note the image below of the visual evolution of the video game character Lara Croft only goes so far and not to the most recent games, but again it gives a brief insight of how graphics have changed in games). 

This concludes the post and information on gaming platforms with my next posts showing how companies utilises marketing strategies for their games and overall public company image. Finally let me thank you all for reading, your support and time. Phew, until next time then.

Ref Image Source (1) Platforms: httpwww.goxmg.comwp-contentuploads201112history-of-gaming.jpg 

Ref Image Source (2) Magnavox Odyssey: http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm 

Ref Image Source (3) Tomb Raider: http://laracroft.wikia.com/wiki/Lara_Croft

Video Games Have Identities - Genres

The word genre can most always be found in any entertainment industry today and helps people like you and I identify immediately the themes of what we are watching, playing and or reading. Genres spread across books such as: fiction, non-fiction, thriller, horror, etc. Within the movie and television industry you can find mostly the same genres appearing there too i.e. horror, fantasy, Sci-Fi, action, etc. Finally video games have genres  unique to them, some of which are: puzzle, first person shooter (FPS), platforming, real-time strategy (RTS), adventure, etc. By identifying a game's genre the player will get a rough idea of what themes will be in the game, how it could play out (structure), etc. In fact, a particular genre a game has can be the deciding factor what the target audience will be like, this is mainly down to people's personal tastes. For example I like games that are horror orientated, however you might like games that consist of platforming elements and don't like horror stuff. From this we can see I am more likely to buy the horror game than one who isn't into horror therefore the genre a game has plays an important role. Until next time and thanks for reading :)

Image Ref Source: The above image was photo edited by me consisting of image (1) genres outside image from: http://www.rfgeneration.com/news/genre/ and image (2) joypad from: http://www.chicagonow.com/tween-us/2012/05/not-all-video-games-are-bad-for-tweens-some-games-encourage-positive-behavior/      

Shiny Money.......WHO!?

So by now your probably wondering just who is the games company known as Shiny Money Entertainment, well this next blog post will act as a profile detailing them. Shiny Money Entertainment was first established in 1998 making their mark on the games industry form the get go, since then they have expanded to becoming a global independent game development company with a whole host of great games to their catalogue of games made. Shiny Money Entertainment's games are not limited to just one gaming genre but rather a mixture of many different genre elements within their games. Some of the games they have made have been adventure, puzzle and role playing genre based games including many others too. They have also had games released on many gaming hardware platforms such as home consoles, PC, mobile devices and handheld gaming platforms too.

I hope now you have a better understanding of Shiny Money Entertainment and why the task of them giving me an opportunity of creating the next big gaming character/icon is a very important job for me to undertake. Shiny Money Entertainment also acts as my client for this task of creating the character for them, after all it was them who approached me about such an opportunity. Until the next time and thanks for reading.

(Image Ref Source: http://www.clker.com/clipart-money-bag.html) 

Welcome Aboard (About Majestic Farms)

My name is Gareth Young and I have created this blog entitled "Majestic Farms" to document my creation of  the next big video game icon (character) for Shiny Money Entertainment, hopefully. I will document my various ideas, stages, concepts, reasearch, updates and any other important things that will be relevant to the task. I will make these up dates regulary and keep you all informed of what is going on here at Majestic, thanks for reading this. :-)