Feedback sheet for business report
Sunday, 2 August 2015
L01 Business Report | Rockstar Games / Rockstar North
Rockstar Games – Research
Structure
Rockstar Games is a video game development company and
company created in 1998 to create ‘the most innovative and progressive
interactive entertainment’ and is owned by Take-Two interactive. Based in New
York City, Rockstar Games is commonly known for its AAA title Grand Theft Auto
series. Rockstar Games are also commonly known to providing open world games
with free play ability (no solid story line). The company comprises of several
other acquired or renamed companies which have merged to create the Rockstar
Brand.
Although Rockstar itself was created in New York City,
the company was actually founded by English games designers Sam Houser and Dan Houser; both of whom
are co-founders of the company. Rockstar games has also bought English games
company BMG Interactive shortly after passing ownership to Take-Two
interactive.
Platform Tech
Rockstar Games develop
across multiple platforms, including games consoles Microsoft Xbox and Sony
Playstation, aswell as having a huge market on the PC as well. Rockstar also
have recently developed applications to run alongside their games on the mobile
platform, and have also released some of their best games to the mobile
platform aswell. Rockstar also have spent time developing for Apple Mac which
is unusual due to the software and hardware limitations on these devices.
Although Rockstar has developed multiple award winning games they are still yet
to release console exclusives; in-game editor for Rockstar’s GTA V was
originally thought to be only for the PC, which would have been a PC exclusive,
however, due to the overwhelming success of this in game feature as a company
the decision was made to release this content to gaming consoles aswell.
Game Types
Rockstar games develop
across multiple different genres and game types, although most commonly they
are well known across the world for their work on the Action, Drama and
Freeplay genres with their award winning Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series
following exactly that. Due to their popular success in their mature game
development, it might come to some surprise that RockStar also have made games
such as: ‘Rockstar games presents: Table Tennis’, a game developed for the
Nintendo Wii console aimed at a younger audience and placed within the sports
genre. The company have also developed games in the Racing, western and stealth
genres as well.
Games on multiple platforms
The majority of games
created by rockstar appear over multiple platforms, mostly Xbox, Playstation
(next generation and old generation) and PC. Games include all from the GTA
series, Max Payne series and also the red dead redemption series. Some of
rockstar’s GTA games have also now made it onto the mobile platform with the
increased hardware capabilities over the past few years. The rockstar company
has also taken a real step towards gaming over multiple platforms with new
cloud features allowing gamers to transfer their in-game character wealth and
content between consoles easily and simply.
Regulatory Bodies
Rockstar Games uses PEGI
(Pan European Game Information) for it’s information board. PEGI is a games
rating Information Company that states the legal age to purchase the game and
could either be: 3, 7, 12, 16, or 18. Most of rockstar’s games fall under the
18 category however some of their games for (e.g) the Nintendo wii, fall under
the ‘3’ category as they are aimed at younger children.
Development
Software
Rockstar Games uses the
RAGE (rockstar advanced game engine) which is developed by the RAGE Technology
Group and was used to produce award winning games GTA V, Red dead redemption
and Max Payne 3. RAGE technology group
is a company owned by rockstar san Diego and is not commercially available for
other companies to use.
Saturday, 1 August 2015
L01 Games Analysis | Just Cause 2
In this analysis of the game Just Cause 2, i will be commenting on different aspects of the game as well as make comments on the overall game experience.
The story being told throughout the game is that you are an agent named rico on the isle of Panau here to investigate about corrupt president baby panau. As you progress through the game you realise that what you were told is a lot worse. The story informs the gameplay by centring the single player gameplay around the story. In which you complete tasks around the world to cause ‘chaos’ which leads the unlocking of more story missions. The story uses stereotype a lot, with hatred experienced towards the corrupt president and Rico (main character) having no fear at all. The story connects to the target audience by having a near enough invincible main character with the ability to do anything.
The game was produced by Avalanche Studios on March 23rd 2010. The use of a near enough invincible character makes the audience feel the same way. For most people this was a brilliant way for them to develop the game as no-one can become frustrated with the game, henceforth significantly improving the gameplay aspect. The overall physics engine was fantastic with Air, land and sea vehicles functioning near enough perfectly. One this that was missing though was a destruction engine, due to the lack of computing power at the time. The overall physics engine allowed enhancements to the gameplay by providing a unique method of attacking a mission, making every mission unique.
Characters are relevant to the target audience by providing a supreme character to play as which makes the audience feel in Rico’s shoes. This appeals to the audience as it provides a character that the audience of the genre will love. The characteristics of the genre towards the characters are suggested with the ninja look and weapons mounted on Rico’s side. Overall the character feels very strong and as stated near enough invincible.
The target audience for the game just cause 2 is > 16 males who enjoy the shooting and open world genre. Indicators for this include the campaign which contains swearing that younger children might not like to hear. It also contains strong violence. The game appeals to the target audience by containing the open world approach when the player can complete the game in whatever way they want, which allows a dynamic twist to the story.
The game compares to others with similar audiences quite similar to games like GTA V or Call of Duty, due to the open world and shooting genre.
The style of this game is a third person
action shooter and the genre of the game is an action/open world genre. It
shows the stylistic conventions of the genre by having a huge open world layout
and shooter campaign in which you play as main character Rico who is an
overpowered spy.
In comparison with other games with the same
genre, Just Cause 2 did extremely well and won multiple awards. Although it was
released in 2010 it still competes extremely well with newly released titles of
the genre today, such as GTA V and Fallout 4.
The story being told throughout the game is that you are an agent named rico on the isle of Panau here to investigate about corrupt president baby panau. As you progress through the game you realise that what you were told is a lot worse. The story informs the gameplay by centring the single player gameplay around the story. In which you complete tasks around the world to cause ‘chaos’ which leads the unlocking of more story missions. The story uses stereotype a lot, with hatred experienced towards the corrupt president and Rico (main character) having no fear at all. The story connects to the target audience by having a near enough invincible main character with the ability to do anything.
The game was produced by Avalanche Studios on March 23rd 2010. The use of a near enough invincible character makes the audience feel the same way. For most people this was a brilliant way for them to develop the game as no-one can become frustrated with the game, henceforth significantly improving the gameplay aspect. The overall physics engine was fantastic with Air, land and sea vehicles functioning near enough perfectly. One this that was missing though was a destruction engine, due to the lack of computing power at the time. The overall physics engine allowed enhancements to the gameplay by providing a unique method of attacking a mission, making every mission unique.
Characters are relevant to the target audience by providing a supreme character to play as which makes the audience feel in Rico’s shoes. This appeals to the audience as it provides a character that the audience of the genre will love. The characteristics of the genre towards the characters are suggested with the ninja look and weapons mounted on Rico’s side. Overall the character feels very strong and as stated near enough invincible.
The target audience for the game just cause 2 is > 16 males who enjoy the shooting and open world genre. Indicators for this include the campaign which contains swearing that younger children might not like to hear. It also contains strong violence. The game appeals to the target audience by containing the open world approach when the player can complete the game in whatever way they want, which allows a dynamic twist to the story.
The game compares to others with similar audiences quite similar to games like GTA V or Call of Duty, due to the open world and shooting genre.
The game JC2 is
available on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. And is now more suited towards the PC due to
the creation of the multiplayer mod, which allows players to now enjoy the open
world together.
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