UK Demographics for gamers

According to numerous un/reliable sources on the internet concerning the UK's videogame culture is vast and conflicting to say the least, I did however find 3 reliable sites that offer a good start in terms of defining the market and setting down some parameters to work with.

States that the videogames and interactive entertainment industry in the UK is one of the biggest in the world, with 48 of the world's most profitable games studios being based here in the UK.
With a near flawless track record developing, publishing and distributing top quality, ground breaking games such as Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto, Little Big Planet and the Fable series.
The UK games industry scene is a highly skilled growing industry that boasts a projected 7.5% growth between 2009-2012, this is down to the highly talented employees, with 80% of UK based videogames workers educated to degree level, when compared to the 24% of the UK working age population it seems the most skilled go into video game development.


With the ever increasing growth of gamers and the constant changing marketplace, it gives me more than enough hope that I could do something in the games industry, especially with all the successful games companies in the UK alone, it gives my once unrealistic ambitions some flesh. I end with a fantastic quote that just hits the nail on the proverbial head.


"With one in three people now describing themselves as gamers interactive entertainment is more popular than ever before, with games being played by people of all ages at home, online, and on mobile phones. Games cover a range of genres and styles, including hardcore games, casual games, social games and MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Games). Games are also increasingly used in the classroom as educational aids, and as part of an active and healthy lifestyle, endorsed by the Department of Health’s Change4Life campaign."




Oh and in case you did'nt know that much about video games, or have a biased view of them as mind boggling death machines, read here to learn all you need to know in a condensed post from a reliable source.


The following is a much easier way to see the overall demographics/statistics concerning the age of gaming, click for a larger image. 




Source: Online Education

Independent Game Companies

As an aspiring game designer, I suppose the best way to start is at the bottom and work my way up. My focus was to be part of a creative team that could flesh out and help a project or idea come to fruition without the immediate need for texturing or complex programming. 
After the recent acquisition of the hugely successful Bizarre Creation's studio by Activision in January this year, Activision decided to dissolve the company, leaving many of its employees without jobs. This worked out in a favour of sorts, as many of the people who worked for the company for years have split off and started NWindies, an independent game developers community compromised of the various ex-members of the BC.


A good starting point for myself who wanted to gain experience of how to create and develop games on a basic level, since most if not all of the subcompanies have shifted their limited output capabilities to an easier sub-industry; portable media.
Although there is only evidence of one or two games on the offshoot sites from NWindies, the majority of the ex-employees from BC are in their 30s-late 40s, as are most developers. I however hope to bring some fresh ideas to the table and bring my knowledge of whats happening in terms of new interactive media and hopefully pitch some ideas that could be developed from some of my own work.

Pawprint Games

Some of the games that they had worked on prior to setting up their own business:

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean
LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
LEGO Star Wars 2: The original Trilogy
LEGO Indiana Jones 2: the Adventure Continues
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
LEGO Bionicle Heroes
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Transformers: The Game
F1 2005
Galleon: Islands of Mystery

Paw Print Games aims to deliver polished family friendly products that have mass market appeal, so something that is user friendly without need to produce artwork that requires much detail would be appropriate and a good place to start. I have had no problems with family friendly games before and would be a good place to start and hear about what its like in the game industry.

http://www.cleverbeans.co.uk/games

http://www.tiga.org/train2game

http://hogrocket.com/

Briefs: Positive Posters

THE BRIEF

Positive Posters provides a shared platform that encourages designers to be proactive in shaping important issues. We believe in the ability of design to inspire minds, change attitudes and spark revolutions.

The 2011 Positive Posters brief asks you to design a poster that highlights or exposes an issue specific
to your own country, someone else’s or one that is international. It could be social, environmental or political; anything that you believe deserves a global audience and could be better seen or understood.

This is an opportunity for you to make a positive contribution towards an issue by presenting it to a global audience. We don’t want to tell you what’s important; we’d like you to tell us what’s important to you.

Case Study — Help Japan

On Friday March 11 2011 Japan was struck by one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history causing widespread devastation to the nation and it’s people. Canadian visual artist and designer James White wanted to help. He acted quickly and his self initiated project, driven by design made a big impact.

“When I woke up on the morning after the quake struck Japan I knew immediately that I wanted to do something to help. Being a designer who already runs a well-traveled blog, I decided early on that this would be the vehicle I would use in order to generate funds to donate. Using my abilities to help.

The design came together very quickly as I wanted something simple, striking and obvious as to what it represented. The Japanese rising sun symbol with a fracture symbolized what had happened, where it happened, and that they need our help. The title “Help Japan” says it all, and is non-specific so the poster could be used for a number of fundraising and charitable events.

The image itself took on a life of it’s own after going viral and has helped many other people with their own fundraising efforts. That’s exactly what I wanted the image to represent, a call for help. I received a staggering number of emails in the days after its release from high school kids, companies, charitable organizations, magazines, etc all wanting to use the image for their own initiatives. It traveled all over the world, to places
I myself will never see.

A person in Toronto sent me a photo of a roughly printed version of the poster that ended up in a Korean grocery store. My “Help Japan” text was replaced and translated, urging people to donate. It was a beautiful example of my design being used to help, and crossed over to another language.”

James’ story is a perfect example of the kind of work we believe in and want to encourage. Use his story
as inspiration when thinking of issues that matter to you.

The ‘Help Japan’ poster has raised over $19,000 for Japanese disaster relief. You can order a copy of the poster at the Signalnoise store.

IMPORTANT DATES

July 1: Brief announced





August 1: Call for entries opens




September 30: Call for entries closes
October xx – xx: Shortlisting
October xx – xx: Judging and high res file request
October xx: Melbourne exhibition

ELIGIBILITY

Entry is free!

The annual Positive Posters competition is open to all designers worldwide, individuals (students and professionals) and collectives (e.g. studios/agencies/collaborations)

Entrants must complete all stages of the entry process outlined below

Entrants can submit as many entries as they like

All entries must be submitted online and received by:
Friday 5pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time), September 30 2011

ENTRY PROCESS

1. Design a portrait A1 (594 x 841mm), 300dpi, CMYK poster that responds to the brief
2. Upload an 842px wide by 1191px high, 72dpi, RGB version of your poster in JPEG format
3. Submit a rationale (500 character limit) describing how your entry answers the brief

PRIZES

First Place
3,500+ posters distributed in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia
$1,500 + $1,500 to a charity of your choice

Second Place
Wacom Intuos 4 Tablet

Third PlaceSafari Living Prize Pack

JUDGING PROCESS

As each entry is submitted, they are approved by our submissions coordinator and uploaded to our online gallery. We reserve the right to refuse an entry we deem to be inappropriate.

After September 30, Positive Posters will review the entries and shortlist 30 posters for inclusion in the end
of year exhibition. From this shortlist, our international judges will choose the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winning entries.

Find out who are judges are here by clicking here.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The most important thing you need to know is that every entrant retains 100% ownership of their poster
or posters. To read the full terms and conditions, click here or see the link at the bottom of the page.

Winning

Insert Coin Clothing


Based in London, Insert Coin Clothing started in 2010, in their own words: 

"when a group of avid gamers, hardcore designers, eagle-eyed fashionistas and seasoned writers realised that gaming fashion left a lot to be desired."

This statement alone gives me great pleasure in emailing them for placement or for a business contact. They really speak out to alot of gamers who - like me - like the geek chic culture associated with the gaming industry and who have their childhood rooted into the best  8/16/32 Bit console available to play.

From evil supercorporations to high tech weaponry, the digital worlds gamers are involved with have some of the most memorable names and places ever conceived, be it the Umbrella Corporation or the A R C H I M E D E S II weapon this company are aiming high to be one of the uk's leading clothing designers.

Instead of the commonplace character slapped onto a shirt with a comical comment to the game they are from, most of the designs incorporate the references made in games onto their designs or simply using the logo from the games to create a design.

Their site is impressive; professional looking with good looking models, a variety of designs and an easy way to join up and keep a part of the community they offer.

One small snag however, their range is bitterly disappointing. 

Considering I saw this as a full page advert in OXM and there is nowhere nearly enough designs as I had expected from such a company, which gives me all the more reason to sell some of my designs to them or get into contact to give them more incentive to create some more high end versatile products that would give their community a boost as well as broaden the demographic they are so desperate to sell to.

Split Reason

Is the only real site that shows incredible potential, using the same method for designs as Threadless do, they hammer away at the fact almost all the stuff on site is made my users, not just designers. A website dedicated to all that is nerd: gaming, sci-fi, comic books, 20 sided dice and about 100 bit art games. 
They regularly hold design competitions, sweepstakes and freebie holdings, as well as offering a host for their huge online community. The company was founded on like minded people who have a penchant for anything with geeks or gamers who cater for the sub culture of the digital age extremely well.
I have no real qualms with this company at all, their website is sleek, easy to use and full of great designs the viewing options accessible and quick to use.
A real must use for the experienced gamer.

Castle Crashing Alien Hominid Style

In light of my second year final major project, I wanted to start to utilise my abilities as an illustrator in a context that I am familiar with but will be a challenge to produce considering most of the work used for characters in video games is essentially a variation of a concept or theme that is versatile enough to produce a range. 
Using Sonic as a frame of reference that is ( at least I hope ) an iconic representation of contemporary gaming culture.


The Sonic franchise started off as a series of 2D scroller platform games that relied on the player being as quick and efficient as possible in completing the level. The majority of the themed levels made were a universal mirror of our own world ( chemical plant and casino zone to name a few ) but the main feature was that each of the level's elements were unique only to that set of themed levels. Take here in the Emerald Hill Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the enemies are predominantly fish and insects all of which are mechanised versions of their natural counterparts, the scenery consists of palm trees, coconuts, sharp inclines, flowers and a background that suggests only of a tropical paradise somewhere.

The original characters were soon developed after the release of Sonic & Knuckles into a range fit for the modern gamer but without taking away the original illustrative style that holds onto the nostalgic die hard fan's interests.

Not only did they produce a far wider variety of games with the constant reworking of the familiar villan of the Sonic series, Dr. Robotnik along with his never ending imperial elitist army of robots and genetically modified animals but they managed to keep the ( more or less ) same themes in each of the new games.

Now, moving onto a similar game in terms of its 2D scrolling and frantic gameplay, Castle Crashers. This game is more akin to Golden Axe a primitive beat em up game that has its roots in fantasy fiction and can be easily referred to board games like Dungeons and Dragons. 
The company who produced the game, The Behemoth have produced an incredibly popular scroller shooter called Alien Hominid, which started out as a popular Flash game that appeared on newgrounds. The game took the internet by storm due to its similarities with the game Metal Slug which had gamers all over the world hooked because of its user-friendly controls and interface but challenging if not incredibly annoying gameplay.
The game itself is injected with humour from the outset with enemies ranging from the large to the disproportionally absurd, a change from the serious overtone most games have.
This running theme of absurdities, black humour, huge enemies and seemingly impossible odds against an unfathomable evil leads nicely into the game that I have been playing and pining over since the viral trailer went on newgrounds.

Castle Crashers has an incredibly huge online following ( see above ) probably since Alien Hominid was re-released for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade in 2007 boosting the company's growing infamy in the games industry.
Castle Crashers has no dialogue, and relies on its animated visuals, characters and scenery to provide a legitimate ludoliteracy for the player and a more retro feeling when playing the game that makes casual players more interested, compared to a long winded dialogue between two characters that is integral to the plot. 
Besides this, the game has a multitude of characters available both playable and enemies all with their own unique abilities that can be levelled up after beating in game challenges, levels and gathering experience points to attribute to your character. 
The fields of experience are; 

• Magic - governs skill level usage and recharge ability
• Agility - governs navigational speed and how fast you shoot projectiles
• Strength 
• Defense - as well as health

As you can see from the character sheet here, the basic template for the body and face is more or less the same throughout, except for garments, weapons and size. This goes to show that the elements of a 'good game' is not complex intricate AI that relies heavily on a personality complex based parascript along with some advanced rendering techniques, but a basis of relative function according to the context.
Each enemy has its own set of functions, abilities, magic powers and individual weapons that are all correlative in their level context ( see Sonic example at top of post ) which has been the staple of games for generations but this game constantly surprises with its plot and enemies respectively.

One other huge positive to this game is the arsenal of weapons available to the player, all possessing different qualities that can hinder one skill but improve the other, my particular favourite being the fish from the Tall Grass Field level, not for its qualities as a weapon but purely on a humour basis.

The odd looking creatures at the bottom of this inventory sheet are actually performance enhancing orbs that follow you around in game providing assistance wherever it is needed adding another dynamic to the game, which healthy distracts away from its repetitive gameplay.


The Behemoth website is really something, having all links easy to find and a navigable friendly homepage reflects the games values. The history of Behemoth is long but its titles short. Started in 2001 by Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin both leading art directors/developers for both ALien Hominid and Castle Crashers they are now working towards a new title called BattleBlock theatre, with not much news on it yet, I can only hope it will be a game as good as both the old games they had developed.
Behemoth's website has a load of cool merchandise ranging from keychains, stickers and figurines, to hoodies, hats and belt buckles, the best part about the shopping experience on the site is that the entirety of the site has the company's distinct cartoon style running throughout.

In conclusion, these are the sort of games I think my style of illustration would best suit, be the most fun to make and be a good insight into myself as an individual with no limits or boundaries to my creative endeavours. The sort of gameplay that these two titles inhibit is the sort of gameplay that should be revisited, easy to gain access to on work/school breaks, fun conversation starters and a good place to start on the game industry ladder without fear of competitive next-gen games that offer too much and rarely deliver.

UglyLogo

UglyLogo is a 'one man visual communications studio' founded by Frode Skaren in 2008. The studio offers graphic design solutions and illustration services with a special love and understanding for printed matter.

I found the studio when I was looking for some political image references for my dissertation, saw this image and had to find out who it was, I was linked to apeonthemoon.com.
Frode's illustrations are not too dissimilar to mine, except they are put into much clearer contexts, for example "Illegal Burger" is Oslo's newest and finest burger joint which he did the character design for. The combination of type make it seem like the coolest burger joint I have ever seen!

The style of humour here is a little extreme and targeted at people who dont have young children, ideally about the 18-30 age group and a demographic of young, fresh, trendy, stylish people with a sense of humour and more liberal approach to society.
This is the way I think I would like to work, as my humour is black and I tend to aim my work towards that niche age range, which could limit me unless I look at all the varying levels of the age demographic.

I Get Around

During my year out from the course, I have been finding myself over-stressed, bored and restless with a tendency to not sleep. I have recently though just borrowed my girlfriend's bike so I can get out of the house, get some much needed exercise and begin to sort my smokers cough out after a bout of headaches (which I am never really prone to) started to get on my nerves.

Much gear grinding confusion and some unstable brakes and I was off. Went down paths in Harrogate I had never been down, areas of town that I had often walked by but never seen, but one thing became apparent, I forgot how much I loved biking. The fresh air, the whiff of exploration and the sweat eanred from a hard hill. 

This first outing was the first of many, as I proposed my idea to some of my friends who I knew were not too lazy and motivated to find someplace new but also burn off the calories of a weekend or the gut that is becoming much more apparent. 

So now Im hooked, I got out at least 3 times a week on a minimum of 5-12 miles as it depends on how much time I have to get out of the house, but one thing is for sure, my mood has taken a positive swing and it has given me drive to go out and explore what is around me rather than be lazy for the sake of it.

I thought I would check out the areas local bike retailers for a chance to look at their websites, gain an insight into their business and evaluate their clientele/customers.

The first and most renowned shop is Boneshakers in the centre of town.

Their shop caters for a wide range of biking styles; Time Trail, Road, Mountain ( Hardtail, full and half suspension ) and BMX's with some of the best names in mountain biking such as their proud affiliation with Lapierre. 

The problem with most new mountain bikes ( post-V-brake era) is that their price ranges from anything from £1,299-£6,499, the more expensive being one of the best bikes in the world however, the Lapierre X-Control Team Mountain Bike 2011 with enough specifications  to make a novice motorcyclist envy its kinetic potential.

This would indicate that the majority of cyclists are middle/upper middle working class with enough money to not only purchase but maintain these bikes for all the expensive parts that are needed for the product's exclusivity.

Due to the location of the shop being right next to what is known as the estate agent's quarter of Harrogate, with 'italian' coffee shops and bistros scattered around, the shops demographic could not of been met any better. 

The majority of the area is dominated by white middle class/upper middle class families who live near or in the countryside that borders Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough, with a high concentration of wealth in the Duchy, High Harrogate and St Hilda areas.

So the target audience is being more than reached, its needs are being delivered with a promise of high quality goods, accessories and services that are affordable, but with the high end clientele in mind. 

The website has no real visual references that give any indication of the quality of goods or services the business offers, its splash page/home page lacks the visual dignity the store in its physicality displays. 

The store is well laid out, easily accessible, and packed full of helpful if not a tad pretentious   ( concerning your own bike ) staff. 

Although this attitude is one that is not taken lightly, as most of the staff are part of their own shop based road cycling team that perform mainly on the regional and national Road race and time trail scene but have been known to compete in cyclo cross and MTB events with 'some very good results'

Their sponsors include Boneshakers Performance cycles and TREK.

This would indicate and also support their status in their field of expertise as professional speed cyclists who hanker on finer points such as checkpoints, aerodynamics and an overall attitude of excellence.

This contradicts my cycling style which is much more aggressive, instinctual, based upon expression and fun instead of the fine tuned approach the Boneshakers team have adopted as a whole. As I found out some of the newer members of the staff were more into MTB and downhill that the road lifestyle which has dominated the middle class marketplace and mindset, which shows hope there is hope for MTB yet.

I think a website revamp would not only be a good idea, but a much better way of extending the business to the surrounding towns in the Yorkshire area, considering it has some of the best places to bike in the country bar Wales and Scotland.

There is a section for being part of a mailing list for news, updates and events which I have signed up to, but not heard much from. 

The website would need more external links that describe how they function as the page leaves me as well as others with no idea what they are clicking on, except for the obvious bike brands. An inclusion or promotion of local bike parks, user routes and forums would help make the shop even more unique to the area, as well as offering younger riders with less money to enjoy the thrills in the area as well.

Ace Cycles used to be my local repair shop and hub for all my cycling activities when I lived on Kings road, being owned by a friend of a friend's dad, there were alot of regulars and Toni himself ( owner ) was a familiar face who knows most of his customers.

A huge step away from the Boneshaker's world of a professional cycling team integrated with the dynamics of practising their bike engineering and physical training, Ace Cycles focus more on families with less interest in the specifications of a bike but more on the maintenance of their bikes and a business based on personal needs rather than professionalism. 

Situated in a suburb of High Harrogate/Coppice which is mainly full of working class, upper working class and middle class families that the store relies on to thrive and has done for years.

The store is your typical bike store, cluttered and cramped but well maintained with a friendly atmosphere that reflects the values of the business and its clientele.

Ace Cycles' website is nothing but a skeletal framework that looks like it could do with a serious update. Nothing too serious but a more clinical, user-friendly interface is all that is needed to give the store the credit it deserves, because presently it does not compliment the business values the store has at heart.