Controversial Games - Muslim Massacre/Postal 2

L3 Extended Games Development
Controversial Games
Tutor: Caitlin, McReynolds
Name: Wyatt, Chapman
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Muslim Massacre Controversy

This game was made by Eric Vaughn also known as "Sigvatr" on the "Something Awful" forums. The game was released in 1990 and although it was out for awhile it on gained an increase in hate on September 11th 2001.

The player follows the path of an American soldier, which is dropped out of a plane equipped with a pistol. Players can find different weapons laying around on the floor though, such as: shotguns, rocket launchers, machine-guns and grenades. To advance throughout the levels, the play must kill every Muslim that comes onto the screen. Once that has been completed there will be a boss fight. Just to top it off some Muslims are dressed as normal civilians, which you still murder anyway.

This picture above is gameplay of someone attempting to defeat one of the bosses within the game. Osama Binladan.

Because of the September 11 plane crashings, people would comment about the game calling it "vile, childish, tedious and desperate to drum-up controversy." Some people even say that the game was made in order to justify a reason for murdering Muslims. Viewer comments on the web site of the Arabic television channel Al Arabiya were mixed; some condemned it, while others viewed it as a reaction to Islamist extremists.

Postal/Postal 2

Postal 2 is a game created by Running With Scissors and was released April 13th 2003. Being the sequel to the internationally controversial, Postal. The game gained publicity immediately because of it's extreme violent nature. In 2004 New Zealand banned postal 2 due to "gross, abhorrent content". On May 1st 2007 Malaysia banned the game because of the games violence and "offensive depiction of cruelty".

Plot - The player follows a character simply called "postal dude", which has red hair, wears a T-shirt with an alien's face printed on, has a trench coat and is quipped with suspicious glasses.

The player is tasked with doing several choirs throughout the week. Starting on Monday, the player can approach each task how they see fit. You could go and buy milk from the store without starting any fights, or you can go on a massacre before collecting your items on the shopping list. The game sticks by the rule of that each mission is only as violent as the player controlling it. Although the gave does advise you to use violence since every character in the game has it in for you. They will either stick their middle finger up at you for no reason, or you could be mugged and assaulted by random people on the street.

When people gave their views on the game, it was quite mixed, surprisingly, but most people went far enough to give the game a zero rating because of the violence, which the developers followed up with "that the amount of violence is up to the players—they may go about their tasks without causing trouble, or they can create mayhem.".

One of the most notifiable parts of the game is the ability to urinate on dead bodies. People stated that this was pushing the line too far, but as it so happens this can only be done if the player chooses to urinate on people or the ability to use a cat as a silencer for your weapon, clearly showing animal cruelty.

In New Zealand the game remains banned, distribution or even buying it for personal use is widely illegal and is considered a criminal offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000. The game received additional negative publicity following the September 13, 2006, Dawson College shooting incident in Montreal. Media coverage regarding the shooter, Kimveer Gill, indicated that he played violent video games. Postal 2 was cited as one of these games, although some coverage by CTV erroneously stated that the game was only available for sale in the United Kingdom. Developer Ryan C. Gordon, who ported the game to those platforms, stated that he feels that the game holds a mirror to the worst aspects of modern society, saying in an interview that the game is a "brilliant caricature of our mangled, disconnected, fast-food society, disguised as a collection of dirty jokes and ultra-violence."

Bob Invaded Space Evaluation

Unit 72/22 Extended Games Development
Tutor: Wayne, Gallaer/Josh, Rai
Game Evaluation
Name: Wyatt, Chapman
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Bob Invaded Space Analysis.

Assignment Objective

The objective of the assignment was to make one out of three games. The games were already picked out for certain people to create. Some people would create a maths game, while others like me would make a Space Invaders clone or Black Jacks card game. One the game had been picked, we could make anything we wanted as long as it was related to the genre we were given.

Bug Report:

• Shooting creates a stream of bullets, instead of one at a time.
• Enemies don't die when shot, or when one is shot they all die.
• Can't stand stay in one place (even with the right code).
• Enemies don't shoot.

Sprites:

Main character (Bob's Ship):

This sprite has the most "coding" within it. Holding the movements of the ship, shoot key and collisions. Although i'm only using the systems icon coding.

Enemy Ship:

The enemy has only a little bit of coding, which consists of movement, collisions and automatically shooting at random times.

Sprite Barrier:

The barrier is used as a shield for the player against enemy fire but you must be wary because the barrier will slowly start to break down as it gets hit.

Sprite Wall:

This sprite only has a collision code, to obviously stop the player and enemies from leaving the area, since it has no other reason.

Sprite Bullet:

The bullet only has a small amount of coding, which is mainly variables, to stop people from being able to spam the shoot key.

Background Picture:

This is the current background i am using for the "Bob Invaded Space" game.

Level Layout:

This is the level design i decided to go with, it's pretty simple. enemies at the top, player at the bottom and some barriers that start to deteriorate, when shot by the enemy.

Target Audience:

- Target Age: Any.
- Target Gender: Any.
- Targeted Gamer: Casual and competitive.
- Predicted Price: Free.

Development:

- Name of the Game: Bob Invaded Space.
- Art Style: Arcade, for a more casual feel.
- The created sprites have a pixel value of 32 by 32.
- Game Dimension: 2D.
- Genre of the Game: Action, casual.

Sound Development:

Plan:

The game i have created is a remake of "Space Invaders" although i called mine "Bob Invaded Space" relating back to the previous game i made "Bob's Gob". The aim, as i think everyone knows, is to last as long as possible by avoiding enemy bullets and in return killing them. Firstly i must choose which game i want to import sounds into. then i should research other games' music ideas and learn from them on how to use the correct music for the theme of the game. Once that is complete, i'll use equipment supplied by the college to record sounds. Then i'll put the sounds onto the computer and using Adobe Audition i will edit them to fit the game.

Music i Envision:

I'm hoping to make a retro, comedy-action themed song, to keep players engaged with the combat but also to prevent them from getting frustrated if they die multiple times.

Other Notes:
- All sounds shall be in mono.
- Software being used: Adobe Audition.
- Sound Effects: PewPew, Beep.

The top image is what it looked like before editing. (Mono)

This is one of the samples of sound i edited and imported into the game. The sound was made for the purpose of informing the player that the spaceship has fired it's bullet. Since i couldn't get a real gun for the sound effects i had to make a foley (artificial sounds) sound. i had this sound start straight the way then had it fade out.

The top image is what it looked like before editing. (Mono)

The next sound is to indicate that the enemies have moved one block lower so that the player can focus on dodging bullets. I only cut parts from this sound, to get the correct "beep".

This is a video of me playing my game with sounds. (there aren't manner since it's space invaders)

File Formats: All recordings i have done started off as "VLC media file (mp3.)" but once imported they were converted to "GameMaker File".

This is the file before being imported into the game.


This is the file after being imported.

Evaluation: overall i am quite happy with how my sounds work with the games style. "beep" was the first sound i did. it adds a slight retro feel to the game, possibly making some of my older audience feel abit nostalgic. "pew" is the sound effect for the gun being fired. For this sound effect i kinda wanted abit of humour so i decided to use my voice for the sound because i figured a high pitched voice saying "pew" would make some people grin. I have to admit though, "pew" doesn't really suit the art style of the game. Although the game is 32 bit, i think the "pew" sound effect should be in a more comical art style.

Did i stick with my plan? I would say that i followed most of it, if not all. I went out in a group and recorded sounds using different objects using the equipment we received, although we didn't gather any objects like i said i would but instead improvised with what i had on me, or around me. As for editing, i only really cut pieces down to fit parts of the game because i didn't feel like it was necessary for me to use any fade in or fade out, loop etc.