Chau Anh

Digital Artefact Contextual Report

Games are an essential part of everyone’s daily entertainment. Everyone, from men to women, of any age, has played games for leisure and enjoyment at least once. However, very few of them comprehend the background, such as the design and technology involved in making the game they play daily. Therefore, for my Digital Artefact project, I wanted to investigate the foundational features that helped create and contribute to a game’s production and its popularisation. I decided to examine the evolution of the game Sonic the Hedgehog from three perspectives: technology, design, and genre. I chose this game because it is well-known and was also one of my favourite games as a child.

            Digital Artefact

As I mentioned in my Digital Artefact Pitch, my DA will be published on two platforms that are WordPress and YouTube; both of these channels are titled “Sonic the Hedgehog”. I operate a variety of blogs on the WordPress platform, where I discuss my research and analysis. There are also video essays on YouTube about the same materials demonstrated on the blog.

https://game157070807.wordpress.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz-zZ_7wUsuwHobLecNOSMQ

I decided to work simultaneously on two platforms because it can allow me to reach a larger audience while also diversifying my DA. In addition, I choose WordPress and YouTube since they are two of the well-known platforms in the globe. YouTube is the second most widely used social network, with 2.1 billion monthly active users and around 122 million daily consumers (Dixon 2022). Furthermore, as of 2022, WordPress receives over 409 million monthly visits, and users produce approximately 70 million new blog posts and 77 million new responses every month (Rashty 2022).

My Digital Artefact material will concentrate on examining the three primary frameworks used in the advancement of Sonic the Hedgehog video games: technology, design, and genres. According to my initial plan, I will release one video and one blog post per week, and I will dedicate two videos and blog posts to each framework to immerse into the analysis. However, researching and determining resources that would assist my study was more challenging than I had intended. As a result, I could not adhere to the established timeframe. Nonetheless, I could still provide the full range of content I had planned from the beginning.

The blog posts on my WordPress channel are around 500 words, which is reasonable and provides the readers with enough information without making them lose interest. Additionally, I examined participatory components, including multimediality, in blog post four. Multimediaity is the interconnectedness of many elements that might contribute to media, such as text, images, graphics, animations, and simulations (Klement & Dostál 2015). I have demonstrated this component in my DA by using particular pictures to assist the reader in envisioning and comprehending my analytical frameworks. I also include hyperlinks so that users may quickly locate materials that will aid them in discovering more about the additional features of the Sonic game.

Regarding Youtube materials, I produce short videos under four minutes, complemented by visuals and special effects to draw audiences’ attention and interest. They can enjoy themselves while acquiring new knowledge. Furthermore, I embed these videos on the corresponding blog post page so that viewers can conveniently access them.

            Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series launched and operated by Sega with the contribution of development by Sonic Team, Dimps, SIMS Co., Ltd., BioWare, and Sumo Digital. Sonic the Hedgehog’s 1991 Sega Mega Drive debut marked the franchise’s beginning. Sonic the Hedgehog features over 100 games, including 17 in 2D and 14 in 3D, and dozens of spinoffs and games in different genres, such as racing, educational, arcade, and mobile applications. The series storyline is based on Sonic, a blue hedgehog with human features who struggles against the perverse Doctor Eggman, a crazy scientist (José 2021). Over the past 30 years, Sonic the Hedgehog has experienced various adjustments, developments, and enhancements that have resulted in a significant degree of popularity and attraction to users and fans of the game.

https://youtu.be/j-dDgH0_wrY

            Analytical Frameworks

As illustrated in blog post five, my Digital Artefact’s fundamental analytical framework concentrates on structuralism and emphasises three crucial components: technology, genres, and design. Structuralism focuses on the formal elements, including setting, controls and interfaces, perspective, music, visuals, and aesthetics, while exploring the underlying arrangement and connections across texts and their designs’ overlapping dynamics.

            1) Technology:

The creation of auxiliary technologies for games, independent of a particular game design, is referred to as game technology. Modern games and simulations are created using game technology, which blends software development expertise with cutting-edge tools and methods. It combines a number of technologies, including augmented reality, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (Murdoch University 2022). Video game technology advances at a tremendous speed, and interactive video games utilised in public and rehabilitation have improved substantially in terms of immersive technology and physical engagement in just a few years (Parry et al. 2014). Technological advancement is a remarkable component of Sonic’s history, determining the character’s development throughout time. Sega proceeded with numerous improvements with Sonic the Hedgehog, with each innovation receiving varying degrees of success. However, Sega persisted, taking its flagship series in multiple technical directions along the process (Buck 2020).

In order to investigate the evolution of the Sonic game’s technology, I examine the Sonic the Hedgehog games in chronological sequence, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Sonic Adventure, and Sonic Mania. I emphasised my research on the technological advancements that contributed to the Sonic series’ progression from an 8-bit to a CD-ROM format for Microsoft Windows, availability on PCs, and development into 3D games.

More information at: Blog 1, Blog 2

            2) Design:

The process of conceptualising, organising, and supervising the production of an electronic game in which players manipulate graphics on an electronic display is known as video game design (TechTarget Contributor 2019). Formulating a game idea, independent of the technology, strongly emphasises building innovative gameplay elements that players like using. Video game design is essentially the process of creating the plan used to construct any video game. In this field, creativity and technological expertise combine to develop a coherent, fully developed notion that people can engage by utilising specific, doable tasks (Schardon 2022). Sonic’s design has experienced numerous alterations throughout 30 years in response to technological and gameplay advancements and improvements. Everyone has their favourite Sonic, from a 16-bit pixel sprite to vibrant and stunning 3D artwork (Ward 2021).

To perform a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of Sonic the Hedgehog’s design, I examined the game’s original design concepts, beginning with Sonic’s selection of the hedgehog as his mascot. The designer’s objectives were to develop Sonic, a popular figure that youngsters could draw with. Next, I considered the Sonic character’s elements, ranging from the blue complimenting the Sega logo to the edgy style compatible with the 1990s aesthetic. Furthermore, I will contrast and evaluate Sonic’s design evolution throughout the last 30 years, starting from alterations in character variations to design transitions from 2D to 3D via titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic Adventure. Despite various aesthetic modifications, the character Sonic in the game “Sonic the Hedgehog” preserves the features of the original design which constructed this character famous, from spiky blue hair to red running shoes.

More information at: Blog 3, Blog 4

            3) Genre:

The genre of a game specifies how the story is presented. A genre is a narrative style that influences the framework of a story, the depth of character, and other aspects of storytelling (Grace 2005). The definition of the genre is a group of artistic, musical, or literary works distinguished by a distinctive style, form, or substance (Abhishek 2021). Extending this concept to the world of video games, they are classified into genres depending on their gameplay mechanics or the in-game duties and regulations that players must follow. The qualitative distinctions across game genres can be significant (Dobrowolski et al., 2015). Over 100 titles, including seventeen 2D games and fourteen 3D games, as well as dozens of spinoffs and games in many genres, such as racing, educational, arcade, and mobile apps, are all included in the diversification of Sonic the Hedgehog genre (José 2021).

In order to highlight the variety of genres in the Sonic the Hedgehog game series, I chose a notable game from each genre to analyse that category, as well as the gameplay, storyline, and comparison to the varied features between the genres. I have researched some outstanding games such as Sonic Mania for 2D games, Sonic Adventure for 3D games, Team Sonic Racing for racing games, SegaSonic the Hedgehog for arcade games, and Sonic’s Edusoft for educational genres.

More information at: Blog 5, Blog 6

            Utility

My project objective is to provide the audiences, especially Sonic game players, assisting them in discovering and broadening their knowledge about the creation of the Sonic the Hedgehog game series as well as the comprehensive methodologies and components of developing a game and contributing to its achievement. Moreover, my target audience consists of Sonic the Hedgehog fans who are interested in the advancement over the time of the Sonic franchise and individuals who are fascinated about and want to explore and gain knowledge about the approach to game development. 

            Feedback and Iteration

After presenting my DA concept at the Pitch, I received various responses from my peers, and their contributions significantly influenced me. Initially, I was confused about how to proceed with my game analysis; then, I was advised to focus on employing my analytical frameworks for a particular era or game. And this is a recommendation that assists me in deciding to explore and analyse through specific games. Furthermore, I received advice on creating short blog posts and videos, which made me discover that blog posts and videos with the appropriate lengths would not lose interest in the audience while still providing them with enough knowledge. My peers also offer me valuable resources for my DA research, such as The Creation of Sonic the Hedgehog and The Evolution of Sonic the Hedgehog. These suggestions have been considered and included in my DA, contributing to making my Digital Artefact more comprehensive.

            Conclusion

I have gained a lot of knowledge from this Digital Artefact project. Along with discovering more about the Sonic the Hedgehog video game, I also acquired experience in how to analyse games using analytical frameworks. This Digital Artefact is a new experiment for me, and I will consider trying to use various analysis frameworks in the future to comprehend more about the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

            Reference Lists

Chau Anh

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