This week we teamed up in groups to discuss our progress on topics we have chosen. It was interesting to hear what some people have chosen and how different our topics were.
This week I have also been looking more into research to develop my topic. I have chosen to go ahead with environmental visual effects in games as this interests me the most and has most academic writing I can reference from.
I went on google scholar again and found some more writings that helped me develop my topic:
X. Yang, M. Yip and X. Xu, “Visual Effects in Computer Games,” in Computer, vol. 42, no. 7, pp. 48-56, July 2009, doi: 10.1109/MC.2009.240.
This source talkes about visual effects in games in general, and environmental effects was one of three talked about within games.
- “Environmental effects refer to atmospheric phenomena in the environment, such as clouds, fog, smoke, fire, water, rain, and explosions. These are added into the basic scene to create a particular atmosphere or situation.”
With this, keywords such as ‘atmosphere’ could be something I talk about in my essay.
However, it also included techniques of VFX within games such as lighting and shading to create this atmosphere which makes me more confident in the amount I can talk about in this field.
Alenda Y. Chang. “Games as Environmental Texts.” Qui Parle, vol. 19, no. 2, 2011, pp. 56–84. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5250/quiparle.19.2.0057. Accessed 23 Nov. 2022.
This source also has an overall evalusation of how environments in games are made using visual effects. This is another source I will use in my essay.
Next I looked at sources apparent to the game I wanted to talk about in my essay; Resident Evil.
Weise, M., 2009. The rules of horror: Procedural adaptation in clock tower, resident evil, and dead rising. Horror video games: Essays on the fusion of fear and play, pp.238-266.
Niedenthal, S., 2009. Patterns of obscurity: Gothic setting and light in Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill 2. Horror video games: Essays on the fusion of fear and play, pp.168-180.
Bilchi, N., 2021. Directorial Style for Interactive Storytelling and the Fallacy of Ownership: The Case of Resident Evil 7. Cinergie–Il Cinema e le altre Arti, (19), pp.83-92.
These sources focus on my topic in terms of evidence I can use for a specific game.
On youtube I found informative videos that will also help me develop my topic such as this:
After this research and advise from my lecturer this week I have found my best title would be “How vital is visual effects in survival horror games such as ‘Resident Evil’ for creating it’s atmospheric environments?”