P2

Canabalt:(2009)

A) Genre: 
Side scrolling Endless runner and Platformer.

B) narrative/ storyline:
There is no given narrative to the game but just from playing it we can tell there is something bad happening. In the background you can see giant figures (like robots) destroying the world around them as you, the character, run like you're trying escape what ever is happening.

C) production process: 
The pixelated style takes away a lot of the realism that the game might have had so they had to find a way to bring a feeling of realism to the game. 
The use of the sound effects brings in the realism; footsteps, smashing of glass, etc, were all produced or downloaded by the creator. None of these sounds were especially realistic but it makes the game more real than it would've been without it.
The music used in the game creates a sense of urgency and makes the player feel as if there is more to the game than just runing and jumping, like there is something to lose if they die.

- Pre Production: 
The game was designed by Adam Saltman and Composed by Danny Baranowsky.

Adam Saltman thought of the idea of adding cinematic music to the game and discussed it with some colleagues, they were unsure if that'd fit the games simple and pixelated aesthetic. Saltman insisted on there being music and decided to try it out and found how much more intense the game was when dramatic music was added into the equation. 

- Production:
Produced in just five days as part of a monthly themed 'Experimental Gameplay Project', the game had no time to look relaistic and technical.

- Post Production:
The game was published by: Semi-Secretive Software (Flash/IOS), Beatshapers (PSP), Kittehface Software (Android/Ouya)

D) Characters:
The character we play in the game is very basic and has no specifics. We as the player, whilst playing the game, assume the character to be a specific gender (in this case male, due to the clothing) but the title image shows a male figure that we assume to be the main character that we play as.  

E) Gameplay:
The gameplay is both enjoyable and frustrating, allowing players to build up a high score that they aim to beat each time they play. The music of the game really amplifies the feeling of intensity to the game to show the situation the character is in is also intense. 
The gameplay, after a while, resembles what original video games were, they had no purpose and no storyline, the player had no idea why they were running or what they were trying to get to. 

F) Target Audience: 
Choosing a specific age is difficult for this game as it really depends on what the person enjoys in a game. If a person enjoys plot and in depth game play, then this game is probably not the game they'd enjoy. 
Children over 8 would be suitable for a game like this as they have a better attention span and faster responses unlike younger children. 
This game is good to play if you are bored at work, home or school - which really widens their audience.
Saltmans main idea for the game was to create something enjoyable that almost everyone can play. With the games simple mechanics to it, the game is easy to grasp for almost all ages.

G) Platforms: 
Originally released in Flash on Saltsman's (The creator) own web site, the game has since been ported to many platforms including iOS, Android, Steam, PlayStation Portable, Ouya and the Chrome Web Store, and is also featured on online gaming sites such as Kongregate and Newgrounds.

Donkey Kong:(1981)

A) Genre:
Donkey Kong was a 'Jump and run platformer'

B) Narrative/ storyline:
A lovestruck gorilla absconds to the top of a construction site with the prettiest girl he sees, and her carpenter boyfriend has to come to her aid.

C) Production Process:

Pre Production: 
After Nintendo's game radarscope failed and left them with around 2000 machines in the warehouse, Yamauchi (the third president) looked to his whole company for ideas and found Shigeru Miyamoto, a 29 year old staff artist. 

Production:
Miyamoto was teamed up with another staff member that would help make his idea come to life. These two men turned the left over radarscope machines into Donkey Kong machines using a conversion kit. 
They soon hit a snag when Yamauchi said he wanted the game to be based off of iconic and known characters to help boost sales, at the time the game was being produced, the film Popeye was under production in America, and so the three characters were produced.

Post-Production:
They tested the game at a bar in Seattle and the machines earned around £30 a day. The first year of release the game earned over £120 million.

D) Characters:
A giant ape named 'Donkey Kong', the woman who was taken by Donkey Kong was named 'Pauline' and the hero and Pauline's boyfriend who was referred to as 'Jumpman' but was later renamed 'Mario' because of a landlord of Nintendo's American devision named 'Mario Segale' who was demanding for the late payments he was owed. Arakawa thought the mustachioed owner looked a bit like the hero of Miyamoto's game, so Jumpman was renamed to Mario in his honour. Mario as named 'Jumpman' before they found a name for him.

- Donkey Kong got his name from King Kong. The creators knew their version of the ape was no king and was a bit stupid, like an 'ass' or a donkey, and that's where the name 'Donkey Kong', the character was originally based off of the Popeye character 'Pluto' who was quite dumb and an almost ape like man, an almost stereotypical villain. 

- Mario was based off of the character Popeye as the stereotypical hero.  He was named Mario after Nintendo's warehouse owner and Don Jame's hotheaded boss 'Mario Seagle'

- Pauline was created to be like the character Olive from Popeye, the stereotypical damsel in distress. she was named Pauline after Nintendo's kind warehouse manager Don Jame's wife 'Polly' 

E) Gameplay:
The point of the game is for the player to get Mario to the top platform to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. It sounds easy until Donkey Kong begins to throw barrels down the platforms to hit the carpenter before he can reach his girlfriend.
The game play is simple, the character can run left or right and climb up and down the ladders and jump over the barrels, all Mario's movements are controlled by the player. 
The fact that the character has a reason to get to the top of the platforms other than the score, gives the player more determination and makes the character seem more human. 
The barrels always move differently whenever the game is played, making the game more unpredictable and therefore, more enjoyable. 

F) Target Audience:
The target audience was originally aimed for kids as they were the main audience for playing video games at the time. The game was for all ages, except those who were too young to pick up a controller. The game was designed for all as it would generate the most money. The game has little to no violence in it so the game has no need for a big age restriction. Although, the majority of adults when this game was released did not enjoy video games and had no interest when Donkey Kong was released. 

G) Platforms:
Donkey Kong was originally released for the arcade and NES but can now be played on almost all consoles and on PC on an online website. 

Skyrim:

A) Genre: 
Fantasy, action role-playing game

B) Narrative/ Storyline:
The game's main story revolves around the player character and their quest to defeat Alduin the World-Eater, a dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world. The game is set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion, and takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim.
 It is the fifth main instalment in The Elder Scrolls series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

C) Production Process:

Pre-Production:
The team set the game in the province of Skyrim, designing it by hand.
In designing Skyrim's world, the team opted for a different approach to what was taken with Oblivion; art director Matt Carofano considered the "epic-realism" of Skyrim's world design as a departure from Oblivion's generic representation of classic European fantasy lore. Howard expressed the team's desire to re-encapsulate the "wonder of discovery" of Morrowind's game world in Skyrim, as the return to the classic fantasy of Arena and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall in Oblivion meant sacrificing a world with a unique culture.
The team sought to make each of the game's ten races feel unique; Howard considered the player's choice of race at the beginning of the game a more important decision than it had been in previous The Elder Scrolls games because the culture of Skyrim's world contains more racism. However, he reiterated that the player's choice of race does not have major game-affecting consequences as it simply adds "flavour" in different NPCs' dispositions towards the player, and is not meant as a way of locking players out of particular quests. Efforts to make Skyrim's world feel hand-crafted extended to the team abandoning the use of generated landscapes as they had done in Oblivion. While just one team member was charged with designing dungeons in Oblivion, Skyrim's 150 dungeons were designed by a group of eight people. Skyrim features 244 quests, over 300 points of interest with a mapmarker and numerous unmarked locations.

Production:
Skyrim is powered by Bethesda's Creation Engine, created specifically for Skyrim. After Fallout 3's release, the team devised numerous design objectives to meet for Skyrim, and according to Howard, the team "got all those done and kept going". Had the team not been able to meet their design goals with current hardware, they would have waited for the next generation and released Skyrim then, but Howard felt that the technology of the time did not hold the team back at all. The Creation Engine allows for numerous improvements in graphical fidelity over Bethesda's previous efforts. For example, the draw distance renders farther than in previous Elder Scrolls games; Howard provided an example where the player can stare at a small object such as a fork in detail, and then look up at a mountain and run to the top of it. Dynamic lighting allows shadows to be created by any structure or item in the game world, and the Creation Engine allowed for greater detail in flora production than SpeedTree had in previous Bethesda games. For example, with Bethesda's own technology, developers were able to give weight to the branches of trees, which affects how trees blow in the wind. In addition, the technology allows wind to affect the flow of water in channels such as rivers and streams. Because of the large presence of snow in Skyrim's game world, the technological upgrades were applied to weather effects and allow for dynamic snow fall upon the terrain, instead of snow that was rendered as a textural effect in previous games.

Post-Production:
Hype for this game was already at its highest as fans of the elder scrolls series waited patiently for the games arrival. 
Released on the 11th of November 2011, the game was advertised over many platforms; TV, YouTube etc.  

D) Characters:
You play the main character of the game as you quest to defeat Alduin and restore Skyrim to safety. 
the main character (the player) is customisable and can be male or female as well as a different race.
The main characters will depend on how you play, making the players gameplay experience more unique and their own. 

E) Gameplay:
The point of the game is meant to make the player feel they're living another life. The sandbox game play allows the player to roam and make their own choices, making the experience seem more personal. The free roaming aspect fits nicely with the plot as the player can go almost anywhere on the map and find a quest that may or may not be to do with the official story line.
The controls of the game are simple to use, this helps the player to become immersed in the game play.
F) Target Audience:
The target audience for the game is aged 18+. The game is for over 18 due to the violence in the game. Although the game is strictly fantasy and not real, the game can still come across as gory and has it's fair share of bloodshed throughout the game. 
The plot of the game is quite developed and some of the quests can be quite difficult, meaning that the player has to be good at concentrating and good with puzzles to understand and play the game to its full potential.  

G) Platforms:
Elder Scrolls V can be purchased on Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, PC (Microsoft Windows) and the Nintendo Switch 

Core Mechanics diagram: