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Unit 6: P1P2 Understand how media producers define and create products

1 Understand how media producers define audiences for their products

Unit 6 – Assignment 1: Task 1 (Due 9/11/2016)

unit-6-task-1-obj

You could use survey monkey to create an online survey. Interview individuals and groups on your game ideas. Get their feedback.

Help with writing a good survey here (Think about your design brief)

You need to include a introduction to quantitative audience and qualitative audience research and audience classification. Explain what they are.

Use your blog post on the types of gamers. After your research justify your design decisions.

Submit your surveys here

2 Understand how media producers create products for specific audiences

Unit 6 – Assignment 1: Task 2(Due 13th December)

Task 1: Using the below example for help pick 2 successful games that are similar to your own game idea and list the Genre, Content, Construction, Narrative Conventions, Common Codes and Profiling of each game.

Now add a third game to your table. This will be the your Clown game you are making with me and Wayne.

 

Title The Last of Us
Genre Survival, Horror, Action, Adventure
Selection of Content Dark, Claustrophobic, Dimly Lit, Exploration, Post Apocalyptic
Construction of Content Linear, narrative and character  driven
Narrative Conventions Story driven, infections, survival, Looking for a cure.
Codes and Conventions Health and Ammunition, fast paced action, cover shooter, objective based, killing of enemies, variety of tradition weapons
Target Demographic Older, generally male audience(Young adults-adults)

Task 2: Then create a report/presentation/blog/audio blog or video discussing the following:

  • Media Text
  • Genre
  • Selection of Content
  • Construction of Content
  • Codes and Conventions
  • Target Demographic

Explain what each is and then compare and contrast each game for each heading. Create a list of the sites used for help and place them in a bibliography at the end.

Task Help

Media text is any form of media that can be examined by the public; this can range from TV shows, games, movies, newspapers, posters, magazines, leaflets, advertisements etc. In this case we are looking at how the 2 successful games from above are represented and advertised to the public. How would you represent and advertise yours?

Explain what media text is and compare and contrast your 3 games marketing style and how they represent each game. A good way to do this would be to find examples of marketing material e.g posters and adverts. Think about the way the product is marketed. Is it dark and gritty trying to appeal to an adult audience or bright and colourful aiming for a young audience?

Genre

In the case of video games, genre is used to define the type of game that has been created. With video games this is based primarily on the type of game play experienced.

Examples of main video game genre are:

  • Action
  • Shooter
  • Action-adventure
  • Adventure
  • Role-playing
  • Simulation
  • Sports
  • Strategy
  • Survival horror
  • Massively multiplayer online

There are also lots of sub genre you could go into.

Selection of Content 

What kind of content does the game have? Think about the visuals, sounds, images used, sequences, colours and fonts. Why have they chosen that content?

Construction of Content

How is the game set out? What is the content of the game? E.g narratives, layout, captions, anchorage.

Codes and Conventions

Does the game use codes and conventions? First Person or Third person? Is the HUD set up how you would expect? What about the level? Character design? Is it similar to other games in it’s genre? How do these help the player identify the type of game they are playing.

It would be useful to discuss semiotics in this section. Semiotics is the study of the meaning of signs and symbols and can be defined as the media term for reading and decoding something. For example, in The Last of Us there is a visible Green Bar shown in the corner, this can be assumed by the player to be a health bar, especially with the health pack icon above it.

Further reading: www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DaveWilliams/20131030/202147/Designing_the_Design_the_Semiotics_of_Choice.php

Target Demographic 

The Target Demographic is the type of audience that the game is trying to appeal to. At a basic level this can be broken down to Geography, age and sex.

Link:

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-target-market-11421.html

36 Comments

  6. Harry Hopkins

    Critical approaches to creative media:
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3lT7lMUPU8FMm9Xa2VxRlVBbFU

    Unit 6 – Assignment 1: Task 2:
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3lT7lMUPU8FSElibGpuMWd4WXM

    Reply
    • Harry Hopkins

      other way around oops

      Reply
  11. Robin Carreras-Gough

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/15Yl2SXCT1xly1jCEn_q3_51gkSYeS8OeRQuiQLyQ7C0/edit?usp=sharing
    Unit:Part 1 and 2
    Robin Carreras-Gough

    Reply
    • Robin Carreras-Gough

      Unit 6

      Reply
  14. Ibraahiim Ahmed

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B13ReSu0sVJ1U2RTc0ZZeWFKNFU

    Reply
  21. kurt bremner

    unit 1 and 2

    Reply

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