1. Read the two gender texts (7b, 8)
2. Summarise the two texts in blog.
3. Write a personal response including examples of films/games to illustrate points.
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) - Laura Mulvey
III. Women as Image, Men as Bearer of the Look
"What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance."
- Budd Boetticher.
The first half of this text describes women in films as little more than titillation for the viewer, an object that is there for the benefit of the person watching the film, and for the main male character in a specific title. As can be seen in the quote above, women were viewed not as characters in themselves or even as important, but moreso as a conduit for the viewer's feelings and a symbol for something we should care about, because she represents something that the protagonist wants or needs to protect, and we should relate to him.
The text then goes on to infer that the roles of women were to be as erotic subjects for the character within the screen, or for the audience.
The second half of the text goes on to describe the male character, the bearer of the look. Mulvey explains that the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification, meaning that they must control the 'phantasy' and become a representative of power. In this act they are used to forward the story, and the audience can use them as a vessel for their own feelings and a bearer of the spectacle. Because of the male movie stars' more glamorous characteristics they become a more ideal image and ego that the spectator can get behind. In this way Mulvey effectively states that the male character is more of an important figure than that of the female, become more of a three-dimensional character than the object known as woman.
While I understand that the text was published in 1975 and therefore the view of gender was quite different from that of our decade, I still feel there is very little I can agree with in terms of this particular text, or to be exact, I feel it's a shame that this text may actually be right. While some female characters had broken this mold, such as Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With The Wind (1939) or Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest (1975) representing strong women, it wasn't really until the late 70's and early 80's that women finally being looked more as powerful protagonists, particularly with Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979) and it's sequels, and Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor in Terminator (1984), and particular it's sequel Terminator 2 (1991). In terms of computer games, women have been going from mere sex symbols to equals in their respective universes. Characters such as The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3(2004), Alex Vance in Half Life 2 (2004), and Jade from Beyond Good & Evil (2003) have all been portrayed as strong women who are intelligent, smart, and independent. Even in the reboot of Tomb Raider (2013), Lara Croft had dropped much of her trademark sexuality in favour of portraying a young woman who learns to overcome adversity using her wits and natural abilities to survive in a harsh environment against all odds.
Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games - Anne-Marie Schleiner
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
Monday, 27 January 2014
Research Micro-Project - Piece
For this project I have decided to look at the book Creating Characters by Marisa D'Vari. In particular I looked at chapter 2, entitled "Maximising Conflict Through Personality Types".
This chapter looks at classic films and analyses character dynamics and relationships via personality types by using the More-Personality system. The More-Personality system hypothesis that there are four specific character types which are built from several different characteristics:
This chapter looks at classic films and analyses character dynamics and relationships via personality types by using the More-Personality system. The More-Personality system hypothesis that there are four specific character types which are built from several different characteristics:
- The Mover - This person is brash, result driven, fast moving and thinking.
- The Observer - This person is factual, insecure, and focused on details.
- The Relater - This person encourages and motivates others.
- The Energizer - This person is a storyteller, who is confident and likeable.
By looking at these character types, the book offers up the idea that we can look at why natural conflicts arise when different personality types such as these clash. In this way we can understand why characters act in a certain way and relate to them better in stories.
The chapter looks at different films, such as the 1974 movie Chinatown, with Jack Nicholson and the relationship between Nicholson's character and Faye Dunaway's character, Evelyn Cross Mulwray. The chapter also looks at how romantic plots in films can be more believable when looking at characters through the More-Personality profile.
I chose this text in particular as I enjoy creating my own stories, by working either on different small scripts of scenes or short stories, or just planning characters and their relationships to use in my work at some point down the road. What drew me to this book was a desire to improve my own characters and how they interact others, as well as just looking for pointers. By looking at this piece and the More-Personality profile I have learnt about specific character traits and their roles within narrative, which I can use myself in the future.
Tuesday, 21 January 2014
Research Micro-Project - Task
This project involves learning things from books.
Take out one book which contains a chapter, essay or article that is of interest to you.
Read and take notes: What is it about? What are the key issues/ideas raised? Why did it interest you in the first place?
You will get to know the college library more intimately, learn how to select
and take out books, and how to read selectively and critically.
This project is relatively open, providing you with the
freedom to explore the possibilities for learning offered by books in
particular.
This means that the first stage of the task will involve exploration, browsing and reading. The only limit is your curiosity.
This means that the first stage of the task will involve exploration, browsing and reading. The only limit is your curiosity.
Spend this session in the library familiarising yourself
with the system and seeing what is there.
Don’t restrict yourself to the games section, see what there is in film, animation, photography etc.
See if you can find where you can find books on philosophy and critical theory.
Don’t restrict yourself to the games section, see what there is in film, animation, photography etc.
See if you can find where you can find books on philosophy and critical theory.
Look through contents pages for chapter/essay titles that
interest you.
Skim read some of these to see if they are of interest.
Skim read some of these to see if they are of interest.
TASK:
Take out one book which contains a chapter, essay or article that is of interest to you.
Read and take notes: What is it about? What are the key issues/ideas raised? Why did it interest you in the first place?
Plan a short presentation (no more than three minutes)
introducing and summarising the text, explaining why you chose it, and what you
have learnt from reading it.
We will be producing a class bibliography of interesting texts from books.
We will be producing a class bibliography of interesting texts from books.
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
Narrative Spaces
Narrative can be and is told through spaces (narrative architecture). The space we move in and through tells a story. As such town planners also use this in a way that allows people to tell personal stories
Spatial Stories and Environmental Storytelling
“Game designers don’t simply tell stories, they design worlds and sculpt spaces.” These two things aren’t mutually exclusive.
“Monopoly, for example, may tell a story about how fortunes are won and lost… but ultimately, what we remember is the experience of moving around the board and landing on someone’s real estate”
Monopoly has an equivalent in the real world, with its basis on London. Not only do we have an understanding of what the Mayfair square means in Monopoly, but we also have an understanding on the location in the real world.
There’s an interesting difference between design space and real spaces. In video games, areas may seem very large but have to be squeezed in, for example the length of time how long it would take to drive from one end of a map on GTA to another compared to how you would do so in real life.
Collaborative Storytelling
D&D: “The Dungeon Master’s activities start with designing the space… where the players’ quest will take place”
Without the space the game becomes abstract for the players. The story becomes more real when it takes place on a map so players can imagine it takes place in a world.
Gaming more than literature or film need these spaces to create a story. The story becomes more grounded once you get a space, or a map. Before designing a map you must know the story so that you know how to create the space, if the space isn’t created with narrative in mind it will break down.
Zork: “Centred on enabling players to move through narratively compelling spaces”
Zork plays completely through text, giving no map to speak of, so the space must be created through text and description. As such, the player controls the narrative by choosing to go in certain areas and investigate certain things. The sense of moving through the space in text adventures is illustrated by navigational directions (north, south etc), as such creating a map in your mind.
Disney Theme Park Rides
“The story element is infused into the physical space a guest walks or rides through. It is the physical space that does much of the work of conveying the story the designers are trying to tell… armed only with their own knowledge of the world, and those visions collected from movies and books, the audience is ripe to be dropped into the adventure”
There’s nothing but the space, and the design of the space, that tells the story.
Before the Pirates of the Caribbean films came out, Disney relied on the audiences understanding of pirates in general and what people have learnt about it to understand the meaning of the ride. If the pirates in the ride did something unbelievable of uncharacteristic it would break the audiences suspension of disbelief.
4 Types of Environmental Storytelling
Narrative Architecture in the Real World
“Kevin Lynch made the case that urban designers need to be more sensitive to the narrative potential of city spaces”
“Some kinds of spaces lend themselves more readily than others to narratively memorable or emotionally meaningful experiences… a landscape whose every rock tells a story may make difficult the creation of fresh stories”
“Game designers would do well to study Lynch’s book, especially as they move into the production of game platforms that support player-generated narrative”
A Threat to Interactive Narrative?
“The player’s participation poses a potential threat to narrative construction, while the “hard rails” of plotting can overly constrain the “freedom, power, self-expression” associated with interactivity”
On-rails is “necessary to make the game work really well. We are building a story-based game, a well-crafted world, a powerful narrative, a beautiful looking game” (Gary Carr, Lionhead)
The Dilemma
“[Designers] must try to determine how much plot will create a compelling framework and how much freedom players can enjoy at a local level without totally derailing the larger narrative trajectory”
“As inexperienced storytellers, they often fall back on rather mechanical exposition through cut scenes, much as early film makers were sometimes overly reliant on intertitles”
Two Kinds of In-Game Narrative:
Give an example of where you see the space and narrative being linked.
Spatial Stories and Environmental Storytelling
“Game designers don’t simply tell stories, they design worlds and sculpt spaces.” These two things aren’t mutually exclusive.
“Monopoly, for example, may tell a story about how fortunes are won and lost… but ultimately, what we remember is the experience of moving around the board and landing on someone’s real estate”
Monopoly has an equivalent in the real world, with its basis on London. Not only do we have an understanding of what the Mayfair square means in Monopoly, but we also have an understanding on the location in the real world.
There’s an interesting difference between design space and real spaces. In video games, areas may seem very large but have to be squeezed in, for example the length of time how long it would take to drive from one end of a map on GTA to another compared to how you would do so in real life.
Collaborative Storytelling
D&D: “The Dungeon Master’s activities start with designing the space… where the players’ quest will take place”
Without the space the game becomes abstract for the players. The story becomes more real when it takes place on a map so players can imagine it takes place in a world.
Gaming more than literature or film need these spaces to create a story. The story becomes more grounded once you get a space, or a map. Before designing a map you must know the story so that you know how to create the space, if the space isn’t created with narrative in mind it will break down.
Zork: “Centred on enabling players to move through narratively compelling spaces”
Zork plays completely through text, giving no map to speak of, so the space must be created through text and description. As such, the player controls the narrative by choosing to go in certain areas and investigate certain things. The sense of moving through the space in text adventures is illustrated by navigational directions (north, south etc), as such creating a map in your mind.
Disney Theme Park Rides
“The story element is infused into the physical space a guest walks or rides through. It is the physical space that does much of the work of conveying the story the designers are trying to tell… armed only with their own knowledge of the world, and those visions collected from movies and books, the audience is ripe to be dropped into the adventure”
There’s nothing but the space, and the design of the space, that tells the story.
Before the Pirates of the Caribbean films came out, Disney relied on the audiences understanding of pirates in general and what people have learnt about it to understand the meaning of the ride. If the pirates in the ride did something unbelievable of uncharacteristic it would break the audiences suspension of disbelief.
4 Types of Environmental Storytelling
- Evocative Spaces: Evoke pre-existing narrative association
“The most compelling amusement park attractions are based on stories or genre traditions already known to the visitors, allowing them to enter physically into spaces they may have visited many times before in their fantasies.”
“McGee’s Wonderland is not a whimsical dreamscape, but a dark nightmare real. McGee can safely assume that players start the game with a pretty well-developed mental map of the spaces, characters and situations associated with Carroll’s fictional universe, and they will read his distorted and often monstrous images against the background of mental images formed from previous encounters with storybook illustrations and Disney movies. McGee rewrites Alice’s story in large part by redesigning Alice’s spaces”
“The role and importance of gamers [in the telling of the story] will almost certainly centre on [gamers’] ability to give concrete shape to our memories and imaginings of the story world, creating an immersive environment through which we can wander and with which we can interact”
They evoke an understanding of popular culture, literature, films and television as well as our own understanding of other games and the spaces within them, as well as how they relate to the player and their journeys. - Enacting Stories: Spaces provide a staging ground on which narrative events are enacted
“Spatial stories are not badly constructed stories; rather, they are stories that respond to alternative aesthetic principles, privileging spatial exploration over plot development. Spatial stories are held together by broadly defined goals and conflicts and driven by a character’s movements across a map. The resolution often hinges on the players reaching their final destination”
Prime examples of this are games such as R-Type or Contra games, simple side-scrolling titles and platformers in general fall in to this category. Also in some respect Lord of The Rings and the Hobbit fall into this category, their story is dictated by the way characters move through the map and progress.
“Organising the plot becomes a matter of designing the geography of imaginary worlds so that obstacles thwart and affordances facilitate the protagonist’s forward movement towards resolution” - Embedded Narrative: Narrative information embedded within Mise-en-Scène
“The detective story is the classic example of the principle of embedded narratives. It tells two stories, one more or less chronologically (the story of the investigation itself) and the other radically out of sequence (the events motivating and leading up to the murder”
These narratives are embedded not only in the story, but also in the spaces, for example the detectives find clues in the landscape, including people.
See also: Memento (2000) - Christopher Nolan.
See also: Starship Titanic - Douglas Adams - Emergent Narratives: Player is more involved in narrative decision-making
“Emergent narratives are not merely prestructured or preprogrammed stories that take shape through the gameplay, yet they are not as unstructured, chaotic and frustrating as life itself”
Mods can be seen as a type of emergent narrative, by giving players the opportunity to play games in new ways.
“[The Sims] should be understood as the kind of authoring environment within which players can define their own goals and write their own stories. The ability to design their ‘skins’ encourage players to create characters who are emotionally significant to them, to rehearse their own relationships with friends, family and coworkers or to map characters from other fictional universes onto The Sims. ”
Narrative Architecture in the Real World
“Kevin Lynch made the case that urban designers need to be more sensitive to the narrative potential of city spaces”
“Some kinds of spaces lend themselves more readily than others to narratively memorable or emotionally meaningful experiences… a landscape whose every rock tells a story may make difficult the creation of fresh stories”
“Game designers would do well to study Lynch’s book, especially as they move into the production of game platforms that support player-generated narrative”
A Threat to Interactive Narrative?
“The player’s participation poses a potential threat to narrative construction, while the “hard rails” of plotting can overly constrain the “freedom, power, self-expression” associated with interactivity”
On-rails is “necessary to make the game work really well. We are building a story-based game, a well-crafted world, a powerful narrative, a beautiful looking game” (Gary Carr, Lionhead)
The Dilemma
“[Designers] must try to determine how much plot will create a compelling framework and how much freedom players can enjoy at a local level without totally derailing the larger narrative trajectory”
“As inexperienced storytellers, they often fall back on rather mechanical exposition through cut scenes, much as early film makers were sometimes overly reliant on intertitles”
Two Kinds of In-Game Narrative:
- “Relatively unstructured, controlled by the player as he explores the gamespace and unlocks its secrets” [Story of the players exploration, Red Dead, GTA]
- “Prestructured, but embedded within the mise-en-scène awaiting discovery” [The unfolding written plot]
Give an example of where you see the space and narrative being linked.
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Wednesday, 4 December 2013
Group Project - Explanation
For our group project we were given the task of creating our own game based on a particular type of game space. Our particular group was given the task of creating a game that scrolls along one axis. This means that the player would be given the use of scrolling either horizontally or vertically to create the illusion of continuous movement through a two-dimensional space.
Connor took control of creating the artistic style of the game, while Greg took the role of creating a short design document of our work and Will has been given the role of researcher to find a greater understanding of the style, while I took the role of explaining the space usage, narrative of the game and game mechanics themselves.
As we began our research we looked at games such as Defender (1980), Spy Hunter (1985) and Super Mario Bros. (1985) which we were given as examples of this style, as well as flash games such as Culmination and Straw Hat Samurai to give us a greater understanding of how the mechanics of these games work, as well as giving us ideas of what sort of a game we should look to make ourselves.
Van Helsing
Space Usage
Given that the player will only be able to move along a single axis we have decided that the game will be included in the genre of a 2D side-scroller. As such the player will move along various levels based on Transylvania, defeating enemies they come across in one plane as backgrounds move behind them as they move left or right along this axis.
Narrative
Taking inspiration from the classic horror novel story Dracula, our players take the role of the iconic doctor and monster hunter Abraham Van Helsing in the year 1897 In Transylvania. Through his travels in our protagonist will have to fight through the legions of evil in the form of werewolves and vampires before finally complete his goal of reaching the Borgo Pass and confronting Count Dracula, killing him and ridding the land of Transylvania from his dark control once and for all.
Game Mechanics
Given the simplicity of the style we were given the player will not be afforded much opportunity for movement, besides moving left and right. This will not, however, restrict the combat in the game which will be comprised of several different fighting styles. Given that the character Van Helsing is a proficient and experienced fighter he will be given several different weapons to use, ranging from his trademark cross and gun combo to a two-handed cross which will act as a melee weapon for close range combat. The character will also have the ability to perform a rolling dodge manoeuvre as well as running to progress through levels quicker, and also so the player can use his running attack move.
Connor took control of creating the artistic style of the game, while Greg took the role of creating a short design document of our work and Will has been given the role of researcher to find a greater understanding of the style, while I took the role of explaining the space usage, narrative of the game and game mechanics themselves.
As we began our research we looked at games such as Defender (1980), Spy Hunter (1985) and Super Mario Bros. (1985) which we were given as examples of this style, as well as flash games such as Culmination and Straw Hat Samurai to give us a greater understanding of how the mechanics of these games work, as well as giving us ideas of what sort of a game we should look to make ourselves.
Van Helsing
Space Usage
Given that the player will only be able to move along a single axis we have decided that the game will be included in the genre of a 2D side-scroller. As such the player will move along various levels based on Transylvania, defeating enemies they come across in one plane as backgrounds move behind them as they move left or right along this axis.
Narrative
Taking inspiration from the classic horror novel story Dracula, our players take the role of the iconic doctor and monster hunter Abraham Van Helsing in the year 1897 In Transylvania. Through his travels in our protagonist will have to fight through the legions of evil in the form of werewolves and vampires before finally complete his goal of reaching the Borgo Pass and confronting Count Dracula, killing him and ridding the land of Transylvania from his dark control once and for all.
Game Mechanics
Given the simplicity of the style we were given the player will not be afforded much opportunity for movement, besides moving left and right. This will not, however, restrict the combat in the game which will be comprised of several different fighting styles. Given that the character Van Helsing is a proficient and experienced fighter he will be given several different weapons to use, ranging from his trademark cross and gun combo to a two-handed cross which will act as a melee weapon for close range combat. The character will also have the ability to perform a rolling dodge manoeuvre as well as running to progress through levels quicker, and also so the player can use his running attack move.
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
A Short History of Digital Gamespace
Text-Based
Represented a way of making big games with small resources, based all on text so allowed for larger possibilities. The take place on an imaginary space using words and the players imagination, meaning all you have to do is describe the landscape and the player does the rest. They do this by not patronising the player, but rather assuming the player has the ability to imagine these landscapes even with a small amount of description.
The games take place on a map, using description to let the player know the layout and locations. This means if the player is to type in "W" for West, the Western section of the map will be described to you.
Because of this use of text based adventure, the possibilities are opened up for more exciting and outlandish stories than others may be because of their graphical limitations.
You can look up TextAdventures.co.uk for examples of what people are doing with the genre.
Contained 2D Space
Pong and Space Invaders are some of the first examples of these 2D spaces. The use of the term "contained" means that you do not move off of a specific screen, with the action taking place in this one specific location. The edge of the screen is the edge of this area, limiting the player from what they can do. There is a lot you can do in these particular types of games, examples of such being Donkey Kong. These games are defined by the edges of the screen.
Wraparound Space
These are similar to the style of contained 2D space, but allow the player the ability to go off one end of the screen and appear on the other, meaning you can use strategy to avoid danger. Examples of this style would be Asteroids or Pacman. Asteroids is set in this wraparound style because of the infinite nature of space, meaning the player can move to any area, and this style helps allude to the nature of space itself.
Spaces That Scroll Along One Axis
Examples of these are Defender and Spy Hunter. These games allow for changes in scenery, where the player stays in a specific axis and the scenery moves around you. This gives for the illusion of a larger world in the game. These games can scroll upwards or side-ways, with players taking down a number of different enemies from a specific area.
Scrolling Along Two Axes
These games allow the player to move in all different directions, and are 2D top-down games. At the same time they are usually in a contained space still, but allow for greater freedom in the games (see Gauntlet).
Adjacent Spaces One Room at a Time
These games feature self contained rooms, moving from one to another to investigate the environment. A good example of this is Braid, with the player solving puzzles and defeating enemies before completing the room. Other examples of this would be Broken Sword or Metroid.
With this you can put your room on a map, creating a larger space with limited resources.
Scrolling with Multiple Background Layers
(Parallax Scrolling)
This relates to games such as Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, Seperation Anxiety etc. This gives the illusion of deep 3D space through multiple backgrounds, giving the illusion of space. It's a variation of scrolling along one axis, even though you can move up and down. It's the background that makes the style special.
Limited 3D Space: Perspective in the Scene
Before full 3D titles, they used perspective in 2D to create the illusion of 3D areas and depth, as well as speed. Collision detection on the sides of the map give a sense of going through a trench, or along a race track. Examples of this are Night Driver and Star Wars, popularised by arcade machines.
Isometric 3D Space
Zaxxon, Populous and Paper Boy. This space allows you to have something different from the standard top-down view, allowing for a bigger picture of the surrounding area. Sim City and Command and Conquer still use this style.
Window to the Outdoors
There are not a lot of examples of this particular style, although it's very similar to the contained space style of games. Examples of this are Duck Hunt and possibly House of The Dead, although in HotD you move through seperate spaces.
Two Spaces on One Screen
This is the advent of split-screen multiplayer gaming, popularised by Spy Vs Spy. This paved the way for classic titles such as Golden Eye, Mario Kart and Halo. Split screen gaming was a more social version of multiplayer gaming due to the need to play on the same screen.
Video Capture
This took us into the world of motion capture, which has subsequently played a huge role in the world of movies and games. Mortal Kombat was one of the first (and most controversial) titles to use this style. This is not a game space as such, much like 'window to the outdoors', as it's more of a way to render the game.
Mapped Space - Prerendered Panoramas
This is when you have a single scene on the screen, and instead of moving through it you point and click, going from prerendered image to prerendered image, and you don't have any influence over this space other than the point and click. This could be seen as an evolution of the text based adventure.
Early 3D Space - One Horizontal Plane
A relatively late invention to the game space, popularised by games such as Doom, Duke Nukem and Wolfenstien. These exist on one horizontal plane, and give the illusion of infinite space and 3D environments, on limited resources.
Full 3D Space - Horizontal/Vertical Movement
Where we are now, with full freedom of movement in the game environment.
Represented a way of making big games with small resources, based all on text so allowed for larger possibilities. The take place on an imaginary space using words and the players imagination, meaning all you have to do is describe the landscape and the player does the rest. They do this by not patronising the player, but rather assuming the player has the ability to imagine these landscapes even with a small amount of description.
The games take place on a map, using description to let the player know the layout and locations. This means if the player is to type in "W" for West, the Western section of the map will be described to you.
Because of this use of text based adventure, the possibilities are opened up for more exciting and outlandish stories than others may be because of their graphical limitations.
You can look up TextAdventures.co.uk for examples of what people are doing with the genre.
Contained 2D Space
Pong and Space Invaders are some of the first examples of these 2D spaces. The use of the term "contained" means that you do not move off of a specific screen, with the action taking place in this one specific location. The edge of the screen is the edge of this area, limiting the player from what they can do. There is a lot you can do in these particular types of games, examples of such being Donkey Kong. These games are defined by the edges of the screen.
Wraparound Space
These are similar to the style of contained 2D space, but allow the player the ability to go off one end of the screen and appear on the other, meaning you can use strategy to avoid danger. Examples of this style would be Asteroids or Pacman. Asteroids is set in this wraparound style because of the infinite nature of space, meaning the player can move to any area, and this style helps allude to the nature of space itself.
Spaces That Scroll Along One Axis
Examples of these are Defender and Spy Hunter. These games allow for changes in scenery, where the player stays in a specific axis and the scenery moves around you. This gives for the illusion of a larger world in the game. These games can scroll upwards or side-ways, with players taking down a number of different enemies from a specific area.
Scrolling Along Two Axes
These games allow the player to move in all different directions, and are 2D top-down games. At the same time they are usually in a contained space still, but allow for greater freedom in the games (see Gauntlet).
Adjacent Spaces One Room at a Time
These games feature self contained rooms, moving from one to another to investigate the environment. A good example of this is Braid, with the player solving puzzles and defeating enemies before completing the room. Other examples of this would be Broken Sword or Metroid.
With this you can put your room on a map, creating a larger space with limited resources.
Scrolling with Multiple Background Layers
(Parallax Scrolling)
This relates to games such as Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, Seperation Anxiety etc. This gives the illusion of deep 3D space through multiple backgrounds, giving the illusion of space. It's a variation of scrolling along one axis, even though you can move up and down. It's the background that makes the style special.
Limited 3D Space: Perspective in the Scene
Before full 3D titles, they used perspective in 2D to create the illusion of 3D areas and depth, as well as speed. Collision detection on the sides of the map give a sense of going through a trench, or along a race track. Examples of this are Night Driver and Star Wars, popularised by arcade machines.
Isometric 3D Space
Zaxxon, Populous and Paper Boy. This space allows you to have something different from the standard top-down view, allowing for a bigger picture of the surrounding area. Sim City and Command and Conquer still use this style.
Window to the Outdoors
There are not a lot of examples of this particular style, although it's very similar to the contained space style of games. Examples of this are Duck Hunt and possibly House of The Dead, although in HotD you move through seperate spaces.
Two Spaces on One Screen
This is the advent of split-screen multiplayer gaming, popularised by Spy Vs Spy. This paved the way for classic titles such as Golden Eye, Mario Kart and Halo. Split screen gaming was a more social version of multiplayer gaming due to the need to play on the same screen.
Video Capture
This took us into the world of motion capture, which has subsequently played a huge role in the world of movies and games. Mortal Kombat was one of the first (and most controversial) titles to use this style. This is not a game space as such, much like 'window to the outdoors', as it's more of a way to render the game.
Mapped Space - Prerendered Panoramas
This is when you have a single scene on the screen, and instead of moving through it you point and click, going from prerendered image to prerendered image, and you don't have any influence over this space other than the point and click. This could be seen as an evolution of the text based adventure.
Early 3D Space - One Horizontal Plane
A relatively late invention to the game space, popularised by games such as Doom, Duke Nukem and Wolfenstien. These exist on one horizontal plane, and give the illusion of infinite space and 3D environments, on limited resources.
Full 3D Space - Horizontal/Vertical Movement
Where we are now, with full freedom of movement in the game environment.
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