Native American

Indian

Japanese

1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

http://www.amazon.co.uk/1001-Video-Games-Must-Before/dp/1844036812

Today I got a huge tome of a book called '1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die' by the editor of gaming magazine 'Edge' which I used to read for about 4 years on and off.

Apart from just being a huge list of games it is also as good as any book for delving into to history of video games.  The way Tony Mott designed to book was to be in chronological order.  I am more interested in this than just diving to a random page.  It seams like a great book for just flipping to a random page and have a quick read but I think reading it page to page will offer a better insight to how games grew and evolved yet somewhat kept key traits.

I'm also already nostalgic about a few of the games I played and remembering the first places that I saw or played them, for example the arcade machine in my home town was the first place I saw space invaders and my brother telling me to try it.

If I see any relevance to include some of what I learn I will be sure to create posts.

Isometric and Prospective

Within my draft statement of intent I have decided that one of the main artistic and gameplay features will be a camera view locked to isometric prospective.
Here is a list of games which use an isometric view

 http://www.giantbomb.com/isometric-viewpoint/92-246/games/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_with_isometric_graphics


Isometric view was around from the very start of video game history from the early 70's.  One of the most iconic games was Q*Bert released in 1982 which used cubes drawn isometrically and played as a 3d platformer.  As a starting point this allowed games to seam 3d but not as we know it today.  It allowed us to explore 3d spaces without having the power or means to do so yet.

 Inspired by Diablo series which I was introduced to by my father and his work mate.  Other games which I played and will no doubt take note of were Microsoft's age of empires series again a game which I played when I was younger which my father introduced me to.  Also sim city on the super nintendo was a childhood favorite along with bomberman.  The games in the 90's used sprites in an isometric view to give 3d effects.

Modern games like Bastion, Diablo 3, Tourchlight 2 are fully built and rendered in 3d but then pulled out and locked into the view.

 Isometric views can show surreal worlds. 

The can show whole worlds

Or busy cities

Scary enclosed rooms...

...underground dungeons

http://bemmu.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/isometric-game-engine-considerations.html

I found this blog on google and it seams quite interesting having only read the 1st few posts it can only be great to help me along my path!

Western

The first place to look when thinking about western spirit is to look at the religion of Christianity.

When we talk about the spirit within Christianity we mean 'the holy spirit' or 'holy ghost' which is what I mentioned when talking about my own opinions of spirit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Spirit_%28Christianity%29 

The New Testament includes over 90 references to the Holy Spirit.  Which would be timely to look into all of them.  The bible states that the Jesus, son of god was conceived by the holy spirit.  By logic this would surly make that his rather but this isn't true according to what the bible states.  The trinity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity show that in the Scutum Fidei diagram they are not linked to each other but only to god (whatever that is).

There is an interesting section talking about a Russian man by the name of Vladimir Lossky who argues against the classic understand of the trinity.

  "God the Son became manifest as the Son of God, the same did not take place for God the Holy Spirit which remained unrevealed.  Yet, as in 1Corinthians 6:19 God the Spirit continues to dwell in bodies of the faithful"

I like the word dwell it gives a sense of stable remaining but it seams only contractually viable in people who are and remain 'faithful' which in itself is basically a commitment to a chosen agreement in this case the religion.  Possible directions could be to create a religion within the game for which only access to the spirits is allowed.  I find it interesting and wonder what happens to the spirit if not faithful?

http://christianity.about.com/od/topicalbiblestudies/a/whoisholyspirit.htm here is a select few passages from the bible which mention the holy spirit.

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

This line caught my attention, the spirit of truth.  Its almost as if 'spirit' is just then embodiment of a value made up to support a situation.  Within other cultures I know spirits are considered just one part of something that is alive and the body is a vessel to house the spirit.  With Christianity it is becoming increasing clear that the meaning of 'spirit' is actually quite vague.

Another line seams to give a hint of idenity to this 'spirit of truth' by calling it a He.  This someone dampens what I previously said about it.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

Later I stumbled upon something which seams to make clear that we each have our 'own spirit' which is somehow linked to this 'holy spirit'  For example...

Acts 16:6-7
Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

This talks about Jesus's spirit as a difference to the holy spirit, they are not one but separate entities.  To further give evidence of this another act.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

The spirit meaning holy I presume... with OUR spirit.  Its funny how most attention is on the 'Holy Spirit' yet there is very little understanding of our spirit about within ourselves.  I don't know much about Buddhism and look forward to researching into this but its my understanding that a lot of its ideas are to look into oneself for answers and hope where as Christianity seams to pin or point towards something else as a guide.


http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/holy_spirit.html

Here I found some text about the benifits of allowing the spirit 'fill you'

Being filled with the Holy Spirit produces a sense of peace and joy in the believer. The fruit (i.e., harvest) of the Spirit is described as being joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Spirit-filled Christians are just different.

This seams to give the impression that the spirit is external and conditionally enters the body and grants rewards such a peace and joy.  This is worth exploring and can see potential use within the game.  I like the idea of being rewarded for following rules which is basically what Christianity is saying.  The last conclusion on the link is...

The Holy Spirit lives inside the Christian and guides the actions of those who desire His presence. The Spirit empowers the believer to step outside his comfort zone to do extraordinary acts of faith for God.

'Lives' can be significant as it implies the holy spirit is alive or has life which can surly be ended.  This is important as life and death are important elements within game play and could tie into how a player will interact with a spirit inside the game.


SO FAR....

Just looking into a few quick links I have discovered that there is one all encompassing spirit known as 'the holy spirit' which if allowed into ourselves will act as a guide to help us in life.  It can also bring rewards such a peace and kindness but it is conditional to entering us.  It is still unclear if we each have our own spirit, or maybe once we allow this one whole spirit to enter is it becomes our own is unknown.  I also touched upon the idea that if it lives it can die which can create some interesting situations with a game environment.


Doing a quick image search of 'holy spirit' bombards with images of doves for some reason.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=10&hl=en&safe=off&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1591&bih=770&q=holy+spirit&oq=holy&gs_l=img.3.0.0l10.3093.4484.0.5395.6.5.1.0.0.0.70.339.5.5.0...0.0...1ac.1.u8GPfMBYJ-E

Here are a few select images just taken from the search, one thing to note straight away is how the images have been manipulated to give the effect on some kind of aura.  Something which myself would assume no its worth wondering if that is culture, society and medias influence or really how the brain perceives something of misunderstanding I do not know.

The dove clearly has some kind of symbolic attachment to the holy spirit so this is what I will next look into.

Cultures and Religions of Spirits

This is an ongoing list which will be edited as and when of tasks which will be completed over the course of the research.  Each area of interest will have its own post which will grow and develop as research becomes more in depth.

• Western
• Japanese
• Indian
• Native American
•  Mexican
• Chinese
• Amazonian
• Greek
• Jewish
• Ancient Roman
• Ancient Egyptian 

DA Image Research Gathering

 Here is a link to a group if images that will slowly build up throughout the course of the research.  I find deviant art a great source of armature and professional work from which to gain inspiration.  Initially the only thing entered into the search was "spirit" and unfortunately there seams to be an animation which features a horse which I am sure will become tiresome to tediously filter the crap from work which is truly inspiring,

http://stimu1us.deviantart.com/favourites/52719814

Here are just a select starting few for first day pre research.
Image are all taken from DA and are copyright by their retrospective owners, please visit and support the artists if you like their work!

Spirit by *thebrassowl

Lonely spiritby ~Tang-de-Mango

Noh Spirit by *Turtle-Arts

Forest Spirit by ~Richi89

Self Western Spirit

What does a spirit mean to me?

As a white westerner I grew up with a mixed feeling about what a 'spirit' is. As a young child I thought It was something to be afraid of. A poltergeist or ghost was a spirit. As I got older I noticed connotations within religion but being atheist didn't care much for how I felt about a spirit.

I went to CoE school and sometimes heard the expression "son,father and holy spirit" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity I think its from this that I thought a spirit was within a person or living animal. Taken from the wiki page. "Yet another argument from the Cappadocian Fathers to prove that the Holy Spirit is of the same nature as the Father and Son comes from "For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God."[1Cor. 2:11] They reasoned that this passage proves that the Holy Spirit has the same relationship to God as the spirit within us has to us."

This seams to make a clear cut between a holy spirit being something different to "the spirit within us" Culture uses spirit as a way to bring fear yet also relief to people. You can used it to haunt which is related to death. Upon death the spirit within is released which can be used as a comfort to some people. They feel that a dead person is able to live on in another world or place as the spirit which was inside them, it gives a feeling of the end is not the end. There must be something else after?

Other cultures believe that your spirit lives on inside another being, I need to research into this a little more as it is something which interests me and see possible usages inside the game. Again back to death and the way spirits can induce fear is the notion that a ghost can be a spirit trapped in 'our' world and can't rest until released from its hold in the world. I should look into exorcism as that seams to be about "bad spirits" residing within people.

To me a spirit might be something that has a personality, from culture anyway there seams to be that idea. As a example the film Exorcist has a young girl acting possessed. She behaves differently to that of the spirits personality. As a westerner my own perception of a spirit is heavily clouded by culture and what I have knowingly or not absorbed from media. I know there are different cultures around the world which all have a different take on what a spirit is.

My 1st step is to look at 'spirit' in a broad sense and list the different paths I can take to focus research. As a start I know I would like to look at Native American Indian theories of what a spirit is and also look into the religion of Buddhism as I know reincarnation is a idea behind it. I also briefly noticed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba_%28Egyptian_soul%29 while on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit and decided that ancient civilizations shouldn't at all be exempt from research and if anything more looked at! The wiki page for spirit also talk about soul, is a spirit the same as a soul?

 I would also like to do some basic image gathering of how other people/artists visualize and possibly look into video also.

Spirits

Initial raw design ideas were to look into using blood/spirits as a consumable resource in the game. A core mechanic will be based around how the player uses and interacts with the resource so it is vital in development that time is taken to research the subject matter.

This week I will be looking into what we define as "spirit" and trying to gather reverent research which can feed into my designs.

Where did spirit originate from?
 How do different cultures perceive spirits?
Look at Art/Design influenced by spirit as a key word
What aesthetics can be crated using spirit as a theme?
Inspiration from music and film?

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test post for layout designs