Creature Feature: Fight Or Flight Response Most people are aware of this process in some fashion. Fight-or-flight, or fight-flight-freeze-or-fawn comes from a phsyiological response to a perceived threat or attack. It involves a number of physiological responses within the body in response to danger. This enables the animal to fight or flee. It goes by…
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Creature Features: Colour Strategies
Survival Strategies Using Colour Animals use colour strategies in all kinds of ways to avoid being detected, eaten or to express themselves in some way. Some creatures can see colours we can’t, like infra-red and ultraviolet, which are not on the ‘visible spectrum’ of light. The visible spectrum is defined as what we can see…
Reproduction Strategies: Creature Features
Reproduction Strategies So, we discussed last time the difference between prey and predator, and how this impacts animal behaviour and physiology. Different species employ different strategies to ensure their species survives, and nowhere is that more apparent than in reproduction. I know in school, lots of people spent this part of biology making crude jokes…
Prey vs Predators: Creature Features
Prey vs Predators I’m back with another creature feature for writers. Today we are looking at prey vs predators. I will discuss the difference between prey and predatory animals, and how this affects their behaviours and physiology. There’s a lot of interesting biology going on here, so let’s get into it. Predators Predators are defined…
Visual Novels as Games
Some games have little gameplay, such as the ‘walking simulators’ and visual novels which usually take the form of ‘dating simulators’. They are two different kinds of visual novels and are very popular. Let’s take a look at them in kind. The ‘walking simulators’ are games where you mainly spend your time walking around, exploring…
Storytelling Without Words
Storytelling Without Words Some games don’t use text or dialogue to tell you the story. Games can achieve storytelling without words. There’s a game called Virginia, which tells a story with no dialogue. It involves an FBI investigation in a small town in Virginia, and there is no spoken dialogue at all. You have to…
How Games Tell Their Stories
Cutscenes Games have many ways to tell you their stories. Most RPGs and narrative games open with a cutscene to introduce the inciting incident and give some background. Dragon Age Origins opens with the history of the darkspawn and the Blight. Fallout games open by telling us about the bombs and how people survived in…
Fallout: Episode Two Review – The Target
Episode Two – The Wasteland Is Dangerous Episode two opens on some tiny newborn puppies, which do look fairly realistic to me. I’ve seen my fair share of newborn puppies. I cringed when one gets put in the incinerator, then we see the sign stating all newborns weighing under 10 ounces must be incinerated. We…
Choose Your Own Adventure
Options: Choose Your Own Adventure Some narrative games have one single storyline for you to follow. Sometimes, these games are referred to as ‘walking simulators’, where you wander the game world and experience the story. Maybe there are some light puzzles to solve to find your way through. These types of game are good for…
Environmental Storytelling in Games
Environmental Storytelling Let’s talk about environmental storytelling. This is something unique to visual and interactive media formats. Stories are told by the placement of certain items in the world. There’s no dialogue or written notes telling you what happened. For example, in Concord in Fallout 4 you can hack your way into the vault of…