Choose one game from your chosen genre. Find a decent clip of gameplay from youtube (no commentary, 3-4 mins of interesting gameplay). Embed this on your blog - and caption the clip saying which game it is and what year it came out.
Analyse how the game uses the following elements to create MEANING. So describe what is there and then explain what effect it is has on the audience in terms of creating the gaming experience.COLOUR - what pallette of colours is uses - vibrant, bright, dark, washed out
IMAGERY - what content do you see on the screen - location, bad guys, pick-ups etc
MUSIC/SOUND - how does the music create atmosphere, what language is used
HUD - what information is the player given on screen (health bars, ammo count etc)
EFFECTS - what happens when you die or get shot? How do you know you're doing well? How is the feeling of speed generated?
The MEANING will be different for your game:
Survival Horror - fear, loneliness
Driving - speed, glamour,
Action - danger, damage, suspense
Life sim - happiness, romance
Write a paragraph (or more on each of the elements), use screenshots to help, annotate in Prezi or Photoshop if necessary. HOWEVER PLEASE TALK ABOUT HOW THESE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS INTERACT - perhaps as well as the seperate paragraphs take one key moment and describe how they work together. For example:
"For this particularly brutal death all the elements interact with each other. There is a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound: the diegetic being the rev of the chainsaw, the sound of cutting, the scream of the victim and the spilling of blood. This is on top of a haunting echoey soundtrack the fades into sinister restful refrain as the message 'You're Dead' appears on the screen.
The imagery is graphic, bloody and brutal as we can a high angle shot of the chainsaw tearing into the victims neck complete with spray of blood. Once the attack is complete, the victim's body falls to his knees while the camera stay at the high angle so we can see the bloody stump. The choice of colours is interesting as the blood - while vibrant compared to the rest of the autumnal shades of the village, is quite washed out.
As well as the final 'You're Dead' message we see the health bar in the bottom right start to flash red and empty as the attack begins. The flashing EMPTY informs the player that they are out of ammo adding to the desperation of the situation. In terms of effects there is a slight camera shake which emphasises the violence of the attack."