Reflection

We were placed in 12 groups to research an article of our choosing from the Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal and to present our research on a PowerPoint. I was put into Group 7 with Kori, Luke and Chloe. We searched through the articles before voting for The Walk Cycles of Prince of Persia (1989) and Ninja Gaiden (1988) – Byron Fong, which focused on analysing fluid motion vs responsiveness in the walk cycles and how they infected the interactivity in their games. The first week we started analysing different parts of the article s well as our own research, we spent the day mainly socialising to et to know each other as having a positive relationship would help us communicate and work together.  For week 2 we started compiling our research onto the PowerPoint and decided who would research what. I had research for both walk cycles and Prince of Persia but decided to stick with creating the Prince of Persia slides.

Our presentation was during Week 3,  Kori and I met up the day before to make sure we had everything and that our presentation points flowed together. The day of our presentation  was nerve wrecking, everyone was nervous about speaking in front of everyone but we all did really well. We rehearsed what we were going to say  before our presentation and joked around which diffused the tension.

I really enjoyed analysing this article and researching the history behind Prince of Persia. It helped improve my understanding of animation in games and the history behind walk cycles and animation styles. My favourite part of my research was learning about Jordan Mechner, I really wanted to explore his first game karateka, how it was his first attempt at using rotoscoping and how it influenced the sub genre of cinematic games in my presentation but I had to cut that information to keep the presentation short. I knew the idea of rotoscoping before my research but I didn’t know the specifics so it was interesting to learn.

Looking a our presentation I don’t think I was necessary to delve fully into the history of walk cycles, originally we were going to have a single slide just as an explanation for those who don’t know what a walk cycle is. I feel the Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia slides could have explored its walk cycles more, in saying that I really liked how our PowerPoint turned out.

In regards to my preference of fluid motion VS Responsive animation, I have to agree with our conclusion on the PowerPoint that it depends on the type of game you’re developing. More narrative structured games may work better with Fluid motion to help immerse the audience into the world and to empathise with the character. On the other hand if the game is action based a responsive animation would be more preferred as it feels more rewarding when the player completes an action which immediately responds. Its fast pace can help keep the player interested, for example if the character is punching an enemy and its animation is too fluid it may appear slow and dull, while rapid responsive punches are more entertaining and validating.