Assignment 4 – Multimedia Industry Perspectives

For Assignment 4 for our Multimedia Industry Perspectives module we were asked to think of a business idea and then come up with a business plan for that idea. As well as writing the business plan we were asked to present our idea to the class. My teammates were Marcus, Shane and Colm and together we came up with the idea of creating a cross-platform games company called “Greedy Squirrel”.

We came up with the idea though discussions during college hours and over both MSN, Facebook and text message. We also had two meetings to discuss the idea before the project was due to help refine our idea and to work on our business plan and our presentation. We also set up two sharing documents on Google Docs, one for the business plan and one for the presentation and each of our team members were asked to contribute to these. We decided to go with Shane’s idea of the Cross Platform games with cross-platform scoreboards.

My main task during this assignment was to do research on what our potential customer base would be and how we would be able to tailor our product towards this customer base. I did a lot of research on what type of people would play games and why and how we would be able to cater to as many of these people as possible but also try to get other people, who don’t normally play games to start playing our games.

We had two official meetings for this project. During the first one we discussed and finalised our idea and decided on the business plan we wished to pursue. We also created the share documents during this meeting. We kept in contact during college hours and after college hours though text messages, Facebook and MSN to keep up to date. The next proper meeting we had was during the morning of the presentation. We had all been working on the presentation though google docs so this meeting was to decide who was going to speak about which part of the presentation and adding a few last-minute details to the presentation which mainly included pictures and extra speaker notes.

ExecutiveSummary

Assignment 3- Multimedia Industry Perspectives

LinkedIn

For my report on web communities I picked the Nerdfighter community. The Nerdfighter community is a group of people who make video blogs, videos, songs and other creative things. The community originally started on youtube when Hank and John Green started the video blog project brotherhood 2.0. Brotherhood 2.0. in 2007 started when John Green noticed that he had not spoken to his brother in almost a full year, but had been in regular contact with him. So the brothers decided that they would communicate with each other through video blog. Each brother had to create a 4 minute video blog every day of the week for a whole year, exclduing holidays and were not allowed to communicate with each other by any textual means. Because of their interaction with their fans who watched the videos a community soon popped up on youtube whom created their own video blogs and posted them in response to the brothers blogs. The nerdfighters.com website was then created to accomedate the rising number of fans and the wish for a place for them to spend time with each other, doing creative things. The website caught on and now has about 20,000 members.

I had always wanted to join this community but as it was based on each individuals creative input into the community I had always put off contributing to the community and instead simply lurking in the background. This project gave me the opportunity to finally join the community and contribute. I had a wonderful experience with these people and will be continuing to contribute to the community in the future. My report on the Nerdfighter community can be found here: The nerdfighter community

Visit Nerdfighters

Personas

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Use of space in games!

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Online communities

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Why I play online!

I’m a big online game player. I have been for almost 9 years. Most of these years have been spent playing MMORPGs, moving from game to game. In fact I am currently between online games at the moment due to time constraints and lack of money but this has been one of the first times in a long time it has been this way.

It all started with Everquest. I played it when I was about 12 years old, maybe a little bit older and got obsessed, playing it for hours on end. Often my father would come down to the living room late and night and tell me to move go to bed but I would often attempt to speak down again. It was because of my friends on the game honestly. I started role playing for the first time, which completely immersed me in the world, creating our own story rather then the general quests that were involved. I was never a power gamer. That sort of stuff never interested me. It was the social aspect that drew me in and became obsessed. I made a close group of friends on that game, a lot of which I’m still friends with today. After that we moved to an online forum, Gaia Online where we still keep in contact and roleplay. There were many games in between Everquest but one of my favorites had to be  Ragnarok Online, an online MMORPG. I played that game for years and enjoyed every minute of playing it. Infact it’s one of the few MMOs that I would consider going back to even today. It’s tempting to join the world once again.

I, of course, have spent time on the famous World of Warcraft but honestly I didn’t enjoy it as much. One of the main reasons for that was because I was, as they say, “late of the party”. By the time I came to World of Warcraft there were no new characters being leveled up, only people on their alternative accounts and as such I didn’t like it. I also had difficulty roleplaying there, which made it much less fun for me.

But throughout all my game hopping and the like the reason I kept coming back to online games even when I got bored of one or there was a falling out in our group was the social side to it. It was, and still is, the friends I made online. The friends whom I’ve talked to for hours on end about life, the universe and everything. The friends whom I’ve stayed up into the early hours of the morning chatting with. The friends who shared so many different imaginary worlds with me. There is very little that can compare to that special bond. After all talk can get very serious late into the night and friends that can never be replaced can be made. This is the reason I love online gaming, this is the reason it will always share a special place in my heart. Without it I wouldn’t have some of the amazing friends I still have today and for that I will be forever grateful to gaming.

Portfolio – Final Year Project

For my final year project I’m doing a 5 minute computer generated film called “The Stars Shine For You”. The storyline consists of a “moon rabbit” falls from the sky only to be found by a hare living on earth. The hare then decided to try and help her get back to her home by helping her build a homemade space craft. The story revolves around the time they spend together during their time on earth together. I wish to explore the ability to tell a story through music and characters and as such the movie is going to contain no speaking but rather just music and sound effects.

My main aims for this project are to learn and create a near professional animated short.
This would include story boarding, 3D modelling, character design, lighting, scripting and all post production work.
I also aim to have a very good understanding of Maya by the time I finish this project as I wish to work in the industry and Maya is considered on of the Industry standards.

I spend a large amount of time trying out different software programs that are used for CGI including Maya, Blender, Google Sketch-Up, Cinema 4D and 3DS Max.
From my research I have gathered that Maya would be the best choice of software to use, although many of the backgrounds will be done in Google Sketch-Up because of it’s intuitive interface and its ability to import blueprints and maps from AutoCAD.

I am currently taking part in 3D Modelling and Animation classes outside of college to help get a good understanding of the software and how people in the industry do their animation and work.
I have finished the preliminary storyboard for the movie and am in the process of creating the final storyboards. I has also completed the main character designs.