Evaluation
Liam Hindley
For my production
I created a teaser poster for my game along with the packaging for front and
back of it. The target audiences remained the same for all 3 pieces, a target
audience is a particular group at which a product is aimed. I did this because
when video games are marketed they are aimed at the same market as that is who
they aim to sell their product to.
Pre-Production
For my pre
production I decided to create a teaser poster along with a front and back
cover which were aimed at my target audience. I decided to name my game “Alone”
because it is similar to the names of horror games, which would make my product
follow the codes and conventions of the genre. Whilst I was looking for ideas
for my production I decided to first look at existing horror posters for films
as they are similar due to them both being from the horror genre. I decided
that my target audience would be 16 – 24 year old males as that is the typical
age that are interested in horror games and gore, my audience survey revealed
that first person horror games are more popular than 3rd person,
this swayed my decision to make my product in the 1st person
perspective. The survey also revealed that the typical audience member expects
for something odd to happen with lots of blood and gore. Another thing that was
revealed was what the blurb on the back cover should have in it, I decided to
tease what the game entails as, according to my questionnaire, it would entice
the audience into buying the game. The research that I did showed me that the
main colour schemes used in horror posters for films and games are black, red
and white, so I decided to stick to these colours throughout my pre production
and production. The two games that I researched were the resident evil series
and grand theft auto. This research allowed me to see the generic signifiers of
game covers and showed me the main companies who produce these games. In my
existing product analysis I also looked at how the images on the front cover
connote what will happen in the game. For instance in Resident Evil, the main
image tells us that the game will involve zombies gore and violence. It also
clearly shows the genre of the game as zombies are almost exclusive to the
horror genre. Having this information in mind I thought about what to do for
the design for my mockup. In the end I decided on a simple design for the
teaser poster as they only tease small details about the game and attracts the
audience to research the game in more detail. This meant that the poster had to
be simple and to the point without giving away lots of details about the game.
It only needed to give the release date, the company that produced it and the
age rating it would be given. The colours that I chose for all of my
productions are all similar because it will help my audience identify that my
product will be of the horror genre. Once I had decided on the colours and had
a brief idea of what I wanted to do I began to produce the image on Photoshop
by using images that were close to what I wanted to use on my production. The
use of these helped me to create a rough idea for how I wanted the production
to look. Once I had created all 3 images for my pre production using borrowed
images from the internet which looked like the ones I was going to use for my
practical I decided to look at the fonts that would be used in all of my
products and decided to keep the same two fonts used throughout the posters. I
decided to do this because it links all of the posters together in a similar
way that the colours do. Once I finished playing around with the lightning to
darken the image to give it an ominous feeling I began to add the age
certificate and the company name, these are the codes and conventions of a
video game cover.
Production
After finishing my
pre production I had a set of 3 images that looked how I wanted my final
product to look like. The layout and colours were already in place and all I
needed to do was add in my original photographs. I decided to take my photos in
a local park because I felt that setting my game in an abandoned forest would
make it easier for me to create an ominous feeling due to the fact that when it
gets dark in forests it is very difficult to see, which is the mood I was
aiming to create. The props that I used to take the photo of the “Zombie” were
green face paint and syrup mixed with red food colouring. I took the photo of
the zombie in the park against a background and removed it later using
Photoshop. I decided to use a different picture for each image because I wanted
each product to be unique. The teaser poster was a shot of a stone structure
which I removed the bottom of so the bottom of the hill would be more visible.
I also used photoshop to remove some of the tree branches in order to clear
some space in the photo. I decided to lower the brightness of the image in
order to create a more menacing image because the dark patches play upon the
fear of the unknown as the audience don’t know what’s in there.
Throughout my
entire production my decisions were mainly influenced by my pre production
research and my audience questionnaire. The audience survey helped to make my
decisions much easier as I interviewed someone who is directly in the middle of
my target audiences age and was male. This assisted me in making my decisions
because they had played a lot of horror games and watched a lot of horror
films. The fact that they were so knowledgeable in the horror genre gave me a
good foundation on what I wanted my product to look like and the feeling that
it would give the audience
For the front
cover of my product I decided to carry on the same menacing tone of the teaser
poster by darkening the image. The lower brightness connotes mystery because
the audience cannot see what might be hiding in the shadows. In my front cover
I also used the brush tool to create some markings on the wall, which said
“Run”. I used different overlay settings until I found the right one that made
it look like it was markings on the wall rather than something done on
photoshop. I also used this overlay setting to put two bloody handprints and
blood splatters on the wall. This connotes that my game will include violence
and gore, which is typical of the horror genre.
For the back cover
of my product I used the same font as the front cover and the teaser poster to
add continuity to my products. In also keeping with the style of my other
products I made the image darker and also removed a few of the branches here
and there in order to give it a more open space in where I could place the
picture of the zombie. I decided to blur the zombie to give it a supernatural
feeling as zombie games often distort the character in order to make it look
more scary. I also added reviews in the same font as the front cover, this
would make the audience want to play the game due to it being reviewed by a
reputable gaming company. On the back cover I also added a blurb to give a
brief description of the opening sequence of the game, this is a common thing
to do in order to set the scene of the game. This also would give the audience
an indicator if they want to buy the game or not. I addressed my target
audiences needs by making the products darker to give an ominous feel to them.
This would attract the audience because it uses an enigma code, it makes the
audience wonder what will happen because it is harder to see. I also catered to
my audiences needs by making the front cover look gory and have blood on the
walls. This was because it makes the game look like it will be violent which is
something that my target audience is interested in.
Strengths and Weaknesses
During my pre
production, my strengths were my imagination as this allowed me to develop my
ideas further in my head before doing them on Photoshop, this saved me some
time as I had a clear image of what I wanted to do. Overall I believe that my
pre production was a strength because it created the product that I wanted and
as I decided to do my pre production to a high quality, it allowed me to
essentially drag and drop my original photography in which saved me a lot of
time. The main weakness I had was my limited ability to make my poster look
professional as I am competent at Photoshop but I feel if I understood it
better I would have been able to create a more professional looking image. This
is highlighted when I compare my product to the front covers that I research
during my pre production. The font packaging of Grand Theft Auto V and Resident
Evil looks much more professional and a lot cleaner. I do believe that if I had
higher quality images and if the printer we used was of a higher standard it
would of looked much more professional. Once I had finished my product I was
very happy with what I produced and it looked very similar as to what I had in
mind at the start. I decided to do video game packaging because I am quite
knowledgeable in what goes on the packaging and what makes a cover look
attractive to the audience.
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