Factual Research Pro Forma

1. Factual Research.
Harry Morton

2. This short documentary is about the brief history of video games and
how they became popular, it was made in 2013 for people interested
in gaming and want to learn about how it started. This video was
made in 2013 because gaming was just getting big with a new
generation of consoles to release that year, the audience might want
to know about the history of consoles and gaming. They use
narration and animation to convey their facts and knowledge. They
use a space invader as a character which narrators. They animate his
mouth to look like he is talking and use a voice actor for the voice.
They use the space invader because it will be nostalgic for the
audience. The voice actor speaks formally to make the tone of the
documentary serious. In my project I will have narration because it is
a clear way of conveying your facts, but I will probably use an
informal tone because it makes the video a bit more exciting. They
also have a lot of different graphics they have made like arcade
machines and old tv which they put a video over which is relevant to
the subject. They do this so it looks like the arcade or tv is playing
them. They uses videos of old video games like pong and space
invaders which is shown so that the audience knowns what the
narrator is talking about and as an example of what games looked
like in the 1970s, They also have text that pops up for extra facts and
trivia which disrupts the flow of the video because they are on the
screen quick, so you must pause the video. In my project I'm not
going to text on screen except from subtitles.

3. This documentary is about how easter eggs is games started and
the different types of easter eggs you can find in games. The
video was made 2014 for an audience that is interested in games
and their secrets. In 2014 a lot of big games came out like Titanfall
and Wolfenstein The New Order and a year early GTA 5 came out
and all these games had easter eggs like Wolfenstein had easter
egg were you could play the old Wolfenstein levels that came out
in 1992. The video has a yellow, black and white colour scheme
and has titles before every segment which is yellow and black and
stands out. The video uses narration to convey its information,
the voice actor speaks very formally and clear and speaks in a way
which is easy to understand. In my product I am also going include
narration like this but maybe a bit more informal. The video also
uses an animation and to cut to different segments which is a two
yellow bars dropping down and coming up from the bottom on
the screen. There is also another animation which flashes up to
tell you what games he is showing. In my project I will probably
have similar animation but with a different colour scheme and a
different style.

4. This documentary about video game consoles and how they have
changed throughout the ages. This documentary was released at the
start 2014. In 2014 the new consoles have just released which was the
PS4 and Xbox one and the audience of this video might be interested
in the history of consoles and how they got to this point. The video
uses interviews as a way of conveying their facts. They interview
people in the console and game industry to get their thoughts and
knowledge of consoles through the ages. The interviews are informal
which make the people speaking more interesting to listen to. In my
project I will probably do my narration like this. The video also uses
simple animations like a simple text popping up on screen and then
fading out. In my project I will use more flashy animations to keep the
viewers interested. The video also has footage of gameplay of games
they are talking about and it cuts between the people talking in the
interviews and the gameplay. In my project I will also use gameplay
footage. I will use either me playing the game or someone else's
footage if I don’t own the game or the game is hard to find. The games
they show are relevant to the console generation they are talking
about for example they are talking about the ps1 and they show
footage of Metal Gear Solid which came out on the ps1. I will does this
in a similar way in my project.

5. This documentary is about GameJam which is where a group of
developers have to make a game in 2 days. The documentary
was made in 2015 but was released in 2017. In 2015 the games
industry was becoming massive and the audiences were getting
interesting in how they were made, this documentary shows
developers making games and getting interviewed on why they
like making games. The interviews are formal and is just the
developer expressing their thoughts. The documentary also cuts
to footage of the location of the GameJam and developers
making their games. The video uses simple animation to show
the developers names when they are talking. The animation is
just a simple text that fades in and out. The documentary has
some interesting background music which fits the theme of
subject. The music is like retro arcade music and isn't that loud,
so it doesn't distract from the content of the video . In my
project I will try and find some music which fits the theme of
my documentary but isn't too distracting from the subject of the
video.

6. Content Research

7. • The first first-person shooter was called Maze War and was made in 1973 by high school
students Greg Thompson, Steve Colley and Howard Palmer
• Maze war had two player supports had a corner peaking function and had an indicator
to show what direction the player was facing
• In the 90s the first-person shooter genre took off with the release of Doom, Wolfenstein
3D and Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom was made by id Software
• Wolfenstein and Doom both have an avatar which reacts when it gets damaged or kills
an enemy, the avatar is at the bottom of the players screen and you can see his face.
• By the mid 90s developers had begun to shift from so-called ‘pseudo-3D’ techniques
such as ray casting to fully-polygonal worlds. Which means the first-person shooters
could get better graphics and better animations
• In 1996 Tom Clancy founded a game studio called Red Storm Entertainment,
which adapted his books into video games, and they made the sub-genre realistic
shooter with games like rainbow six which also made stealth popular in these types of
games.
PC Gamer-Source

8. • In 1996 Quake was released which added vertical movement to the first-person
genre to stop people from corner camping. The vertical movement let you fly
through the air for a short amount of time.
• In 1998 Valve Software released Half-life which managed to tell a story without
any cutscenes and showed us that first-person shooter games could have a
good story.
• In 1999 counter strike released which was a military realistic first-person
shooter which became popular because of skill you had to require to be good at
the game.
• In 2000 Microsoft acquired Bungie and in 2001 they released Halo
Combat Evolved which is one of the best first-person shooter of all time.
• In 2002 battlefield 1942 was released which let 64 player fight each other over
control points in massive open maps.
• In 2003 a soon to be massive first-person franchise was released, Call of Duty was
one of the first first-person shooter games that let you aim down
your weapons iron sights.

9. • In 2004 Half-Life 2 and Far cry were released which change the first-
person shooter genre forever, specially Half-Life 2 which involved puzzles and a
gravity gun which let you fling objects at your enemies.
• In 2007 Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare was released which was one of the most
popular multiplayer games and made unlocking stuff as you level up popular
which we see in many games today.
• In 2007 Bioshock was released which combined gunplay and magic together,
but it is most famous for its world building.
• Crytek sold Far Cry franchise to Ubisoft who made Far Cry 2 which was a first-
person free roam game with realistic everything.
• In 2014 destiny was released which was a first-person MMO which players
had to grind for loot to level up their character.
• In 2016 Overwatch was released which combined all the first-person shooter
games in one, for example you have Soldier 76 who is inspired by Call of Duty,
you also have Widow Maker who is inspired by sniper games like Sniper Elite.

10. The New Yorker-Source
• By 1996 Doom had sold nearly sold 2 million copies and was the most successful computer game at the
time.
• Doom created its own sub-genre called the Doom clone, which means after doom was released many
developers copied its style and made their own version of Doom.
• Doom was a success because It managed to immerse the player into a game which required skill and
was satisfying to play.
• First-person shooters are successful because it lets people vent their built-up emotions and it also
creates adrenaline which you can't in other gaming experiences like strategy and simulation games.
• In a 2005 study that looked at the experience of playing thirteen popular games, Half-Life 2 yielded the
greatest degree of total player immersion
• First-person shooters may be a way of reclaiming our sense of efficacy. This is perhaps why the appeal
of gaming is so massive.
• First-person shooters has made the average age of a person who plays video games 30 years old and
they have also made the game industry more diversified.
• First-person shooters also motivate people to socialize more and meet new people online.
• In 2009, the psychologist Leonard Reinecke discovered that video games were a surprisingly effective
way to combat stress, fatigue, and depression

11. Research summary:
• In my research I learned that narration is important to a documentary
because it is a good way of conveying your knowledge and facts to your
audience.
• Animation also important to a documentary, they can be used to split the
documentary into segments or can be used to show a title of a game which is
being shown or a person name that is being interviewed.
• Interviews can be used as part of a documentary because you can hear
experts' views on the subject, or you can hear someone else's opinion
• Background music can be helpful to make the documentary not have any
awkward silences but don’t have it too loud or it will distract the viewer from
the documentary subject
• Editing is an important part of any type of media, it can be used to add
subtitles at the bottom of the screen or have different transition so that the
video flows smoothly.

12. Bibliography:
TED-Ed. (2013) A brief history of video games (Part I) - Safwat
Saleem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x24KoVNliMk (accessed 15/09/20)
Ahoy. (2014) Easter Eggs in Video
Games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Sv4FVDnXQ&list=PLwSEi44YaFrgCqehFlIKAcxpRnzmF1aGw&index=
61 (accessed 15/09/20)
TIME. (2014) The History of Video Game Consoles: Part 2 |
TIME. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6I6iP0RVCw (accessed 15/09/20)
Irish Game Dev. (2017) GameJam - A Short
Documentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO5TpTKUDxU&t=31s (accessed 17/09/20)
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell. (2017) The history of the first-person shooter. https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-history-of-
the-first-person-shooter/ (accessed 17/09/20)
Maria Konnikova. (2013) Why Gamers Can’t Stop Playing First-Person
Shooters. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-gamers-cant-stop-playing-first-person-
shooters (accessed 18/09/20)