sam Analysis on the book writing situation?

Well hello again to you all the lads, the ladies, the chaps, the ol sports and to all and everyone else to yet another round of blogs by yours truly because this is all I have going for myself right now (the concept of writing has really peaked my interest). Anywho I am here again to discuss the progress when it comes to the creation of this book that I have become invested in making and I am going to get down to writing an analysis. So without further intervention let's get some tea and get to chin waggling.

(Research was just the beginning, it's time to get to analysing some very important stuff)

So far we have discussed the concept that myself and a group of fellow colleagues have been assigned to make a book all about game design and development. I then in the same week discussed a brief concept on how I will try and do the research on the topics that I have chosen to do which were on Indie Development (which is a growing community in the video game industry that I am heavily invested in) and the other being the concept of What exactly is a game world (the question may seem easy Chaps, but let me tell you every section is like an Iceberg, it's looks normal and small on the top but their is a deeper underbelly lying below the surface of it all). Following from that I then went off to give a more detailed version of the concept of research and how to go about it through the help of an Arts Matrix (Slow motion bullet dodging and sweet flips/learning Kung fu are not included) and it helped me to pinpoint a clearer outline of what exactly I want to focus on and what I can use to help me with said research (including the topic of Research Questions I want to ask, primary sources to use for research, Pros and Cons to the topics, the time period that I will focus on for the topic (may be shortened if there is too much to break down but that will be a last result) some significance to them and a somewhat brief rough draft version of a conclusion (it's not the finalised as that will come after the guts are written and that will come with the Opening so I not going to just wing a lame attempt chaps, I don't do that)). So for this week I am going to go a little more into the concept of conducting and writing an analysis to my chosen topic which I will discuss now.

( Using this as a template has been very helpful in more ways then one)

So what exactly is the purpose of Analysis when it come to the likes of writing a book on Game Design and Development. Well you think that it might all be similar to putting more detail into talking about research, then you would be somewhat right. What I have seen when it comes to Analysis, particularly when it is in relation to the topics I have I have help of focusing on a three step analysis.

The First step is the concept of looking for the Thematic analysis of my topics. What does that mean you may be asking while scratching your head in confusion, well the basic concept is that it is to break down the topics and find what is very similar or identical to one another. It can usually apply to a set of texts, interview transcripts, survey responses and many more types of Thematic Analysis. So taking from what I read and learned, I decided to look at both of my selected topics and see if there are any similar aspects that they may display. From what I can gather there are a couple of very similar things that are very noticeable between the two that may seem simple but they are a good starting point such as you can't have an indie game without creating a world to place the content, they are usually very well designed to help give a sense of that created characters have lived in the worlds created, they usually cost a bit of money though a company of from kickstarter fundraising and that the most important one is that they always start as a simple concept and that they build out from there to create a wondrous experience for many people all around the world. as for other similar things that they would have in common would be in it's theme and Visual style that can help with it's concept, The creation of this world or of an indie game can have great controls to boot, they can both have very captivating worlds that are created to help keep focus on the world created for the player to experience first hand, They can help to create some memorable characters that will be remembered for a long time after the game is over, They can help to create a good blend of challenge and Reward, they can create some very interesting story, but most importantly that while it may seem like a difference, it is similar to the fact that they are all very different to one another and that's the important thing.

(An example of what Indie Development and a game world have in common: the creation of memorable characters like Sans)

The second type of analysis that I would focus on is to focus on the topic on the research that I have obtained. What I am looking for is to find some parts of the sources that I have obtained from my extensive research is to now to look for gaps in the sources that I have secured because like I said from my writing of the Arts Matrix is that their can be Pros and Cons to the topics and the sources and one of those cons is that some of the information could be Missing or could have been altered in the process. From going over the list that I have provided for both of the topics chosen the main primary sources that I have focused on to find gaps in is in relation to the Game Journalists companies like Kotaku, Polygon, Game informer etc... and on the think pieces and Video essay that are found all over Youtube. The reason that I have pinpointed these in particular is because from my experience of reading and trying my hand in Gaming Journalism (it is a long story that I will tell one day if anyone is interested, but just not today) is that a lot of times many articles or think pieces can be one sided or very biased to the one person's opinions rather then being a larger discussion from the likes of surveys or interviews on the street or in schools or businesses. When I am doing further research into the likes of using these sources I will make sure that the articles that are being discussed are more neutral then anything and are not more one sided then anything because it will mess up the whole process if that happens. As for my other sources, I will also give them all a more in depth analysis of what can be useful and what is just excessive Chin waggling nonsense because I want to make sure that the sections that I am writing for this book are full of interesting and factual material and is not just excessive nonsense that I just randomly found from the internet or from sources provided.

As for the last section of Analysis I wanted to focus on when it actually come down to writing these sections an where I will be talking about what for each part. This process can be easily done that I can use my research questions that i want to talk about for each topic and break them down for the sections to focus on particular parts for that question and create headings and subsections for them. From my Arts Matrix I see that I have about 4 or 5 specific research question for each of my selected topic and I am going to break them down now so I have a clearer idea for writing these sections when it comes to actually starting to write them.

Let me start with Indie Development. So the research questions that I had come up with that I feel would be a good centric focus for the book chapter were as follows. 1. How has the Indie game Industry shaped the Video game industry in general. 2.What is the difference between an Indie game and a Triple A game (they seem to be more in the Familiar in the last few years that it may be hard to decipher sometimes). 3. The many different types of Indie game. 4. The sheer creativity of an Indie game and 5. How Indie games have shaped the world for the better then just being pixels and polygons on a screen. For the main heading I would stick with the Indie Development but mainly mix the first and 5th question as kind of a main heading as well and then from there I would give the other remaining questions as sub topics as well as giving context to the other two somewhat main headings and make them sub headings as well that will hopefully all connect together seamlessly.

As for the topic of What is a game world after a long thought process I came to the concept of 4 research questions for this chosen topic. 1. What exactly is a video game world? 2. Where and when was the concept first created? 3. How much has the concept grown since its inception and how it has helped to make games or certain that much more successful (this could be split down into two questions or two parts) and 4. What exactly counts as a video game world and what doesn't. To then work it around into making the topic into a written piece I would make the topic theme heading be the main question of what is a game world and then work that into a sub heading with the 3 other sub topic headings. If there is a point where I am writing these sections and I think of another concept question to ask then I will acknowledge it in a future blog post or during development of the sections. 

Now I know that this isn't going a jolly old walk in the walk chaps but I know that all it takes is planning it out, a good bit of time management, a bit of Sanity and a lot of caffeine, I am sure that everything will work out for myself and for everyone else who is involved in the creation of this book because I know that their is a lot of talented writers that I am working alongside with for this project and I know by the end of it all we will make something special and the true bee's knees, I just know it.

(it is the approach that I want to focus on and how I feel how everything works out in the end)

All in all, at the end of the day when it comes down to it the subject of analysing your chosen topics and giving such elaborate details to it all is an important part to anything that needs to be fully planned out. Anyway I think I have chin waggled on long enough so I am going to leave it here for another blog and now I am going to drink my weight in Caffeine and head on the train to sleepville. So until next time.

Cheerio!!!

-Sam H.