History of gaming 50's - 70's

The first ever computer game developed was tic tac toe in 1952, and then tennis for two in 1958. both these creations are in my opinion dont really count as a true computer games (firstly because tic tac toe is shown only through code/text, and even though tennis for two is visual its played on a oscilloscope rather than a tv monitor), the first true computer game is space war by Steve Russell in 1962, its a two player overhead shooter where the aim of the game is purely to shoot down the other player before they do it to you.

I believe Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney were the first people to really make games for entertainment purposes, steve russells game was made more for the sake of proving it can be done in my opinion. this is evident in Bushnells comment "theres got to be a better use for a television than broadcasting". Even from a young age he was an inventor and creative person, this would have helped with the creation process of game production, ontop of this he ran his fathers company from an early age so he would have had a good grasp of how industry works and how money is made.

When Nolan and Ted began making games they formed the company Atari, their first game was computer space which was a remake of space war. Afterwards they worked on Pong for the arcades and then in 1975 they released th pong home system.

Hello World

Hey an welcome to my blog, my name is Michael Wilkinson and this is my Game Art Blog, where I will be posting all things Arty an to do with games and my degree course, My educational background consists of A Levels in Fine Art, Graphic Communication, Physics and Computing. I then progressed onto an Art, Design and Media Foundation where I learnt to enhance my skills, such as life drawing and different points of perspective ready for university. I enjoy working in any medium, but Acrylic paint and inks are my currently my favourites, doing both graphics and fine art has allowed me to build up a decent range of skills, from basic pencil sketching to digital art on Photoshop. On my foundation I Began to draw more from life rather than reference materials this will come in useful on my course. After completing my Ba Game art I hope to move onto a Masters then progress to industry as a professional artist.

My favourite genres of games are RPG, both western and eastern. RTS and Shooter games as well as Fighters and Puzzle, ohh and platformers… So basically I like lots of games; pretty much anything but sports games because they are evil. Some of my all-time favourites are Abes Odyssey, Pokemon,  Blazblue, Mass Effect, Dawn of War, XenoBlade Chronicles, Megaman and Megaman X, Castlevania, Darksiders, Super Smash Bros, Left 4 Dead and every Metroid game ever made because they are all amazing and I love Samus, and many more.

As well as being an avid gamer and well honestly abit of a gaming nerd, I enjoy playing card games like Magic the gathering and Cardfight Vanguard!!, I am also a huge anime and manga fan, my favourites are neon genesis Evangelion, FullMetal Alchemist, Steins Gate, outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop.

I enjoy drawing most things but currently I believe I am better at drawing environments than people, so I will have to practice much more on human forms, and maybe specialise in landscapes later in the course. I have always been interested in games ( I would always play a game and while going through it be wondering to myself about the processes used and how it’s all put together, what makes it a good experience and if it’s not good, why is that the case) and drawing ever since I was about three years old, I used to copy things off the screen and draw my own Mario bros worlds and create new characters for games so as I grew up moving toward a career in art and gaming just always seemed like an obvious choice.

Over the course of the next three years I will be uploading both 2D and 3D artwork from my coursework as well as any personal works I create, I hope to get as much feedback as possible, so please give lots of feedback folks and be honest, if you think its crap then tell me why.

That’s all for now.