Narrative Film Structure Parallels

The Dark Crystal & Labyrinth

1. Equilibrium- The Dark Crystal
In the Land of Thora there was peace and Harmony with the creatures who over looked the world taking care of the Crystal of Balance. Gelfling were able to live free lives along with the Podlings and other inhabitants of the world.

1. Equilibrium – Labyrinth
Sarah is free to play make believe in her spare time. She reads plays and re-enacts them for her pet dog.

2. Disturbances- The Dark Crystal
The Crystal is cracked and the omnipresent beings are split into two new races, The Uru (Mystics) and the Skeksis. The Skeksis evil ugly creatures capture and kill the entire Gelfling race as there is a prophecy that Gelfling will destroy Skeksis and end their rule.

2. Disturbances-Labyrinth
Sarah returns home and is demanded she looks after her baby brother by her step mother. Sarah is sick of being responsible for her crying brother and she playfully recites a line from one of her plays asking the goblin king to take her brother away from her... Jareth the Goblin King hears her plea and takes the baby.

3. Protagonist- The Dark Crystal
Jen the last of his kind is a Gelfling. He has been raised his entire life by the peaceful Uru (Mystics). Serving his Master the Leader of the Mystics. He is strong willied and intelligent.

3. Protagonist- Labyrith
Sarah, after sending her baby brother away to the goblin king by accident, sarah leaves on a search to retrieve and save her brother. She is strong willed and intelligent.

4. Plan- The Dark Crystal
Jen's Master is dying and he tells Jen the Talk of the Dark Crystal, he tells Jen that he must reach a wise woman called Ulgrah she will assist in explaining everything. Jen must fulfil the prophecy and heal the dark crystal. Then the Leader of the Uru Dies.

4. Plan- Labyrinth

Jareth comes to Sarah and tells her that if she so desperately wants her brother back she must reach the goblin kingdom in a certain amount of time. All she has to do is make her way through the Labyrinth, and the Goblin Kingdom is on the other side.

5. Obstacles- The Dark Crystal
Jen reaches the home of Algrah, she has shards one of which she knows will heal the dark crystal. Jen must figure out which is the correct shard.

5. Obstacles- Labyrinth
Sarah goes through the Labyrinth but walls move, the arrows she draws on the ground get turned around and she keeps ending up back where she started.

6. Complications- The Dark Crystal
Garthem the Skeksis henchmen come to the home of Algrah in search of the last Gelfling. They destroy her home and capture her, Jen Remarkably escapes, but now he has no idea where to go or what to do with the crystal shard he has obtained.

6. Complications- Labyrinth
Sarah meets one of Jareth's Henchmen Hoggle. She is naive to this and befriends him, he leads her through the labyrinth towards traps and the wrong way.

7. Timeout/Relax- The Dark Crystal
Jen meets Kira another Gelfling. She also thought she was the last one and has been raised by the Podlings. Jen and Kira have a bond and she brings him to her family and they all have a huge party.

7. Timeout/Relax- Labyrinth
Hoggle feels bad leading Sarah astray and begins to actually help her get through the Labyrinth, Sarah makes meets another friend Ludo.

8. Crisis- The Dark Crystal
Garthem Attack the podlings and capture them, Jen and Kira escape and find ruins of their people the Gelfling. As Jen is intelligent he is able to read the writing and symbols and they discover that the pair of them must place the crystal shard back inside the crystal healing it and saving their world. A Skeksi finds them and tries to trick them into coming with him.

8. Crisis- Labyrinth
Jareth places enchantments and spells on sarah leading her astray to a world that isn't real, a ballroom and her bedroom. Sarah realises its fake and breaks the spell, She then enters the Goblin city and is faced with evil goblins.

9. Climax- The Dark Crystal

Jen and Kira reach the castle of the Skeksis, and Kira is captured. Jen becomes stuck under a roof collapse. He searches for Kira but cannot find her, he then makes his way towards the Crystal room. Garthem are upon him and Jen is backed against a wall. Kira flies to his rescue and saves him from the Garthem. A Skeksi captures Kira and tells Jen to give him the shard or else. Kira yells to Jen that he must heal the dark crystal at any cost. The Skeksi stabbs Kira in her heart and she dies. Jen then jumps upon the Dark Crystal and inserts the shard sobbing, he returns to His love Kira and cradels her lifeless body.



9. Climax- Labyrinth
Sarah reaches Jareth's throne room, she battles with him for her brother. Jareth Keeps using illusions against her.

10. Resolution- The Dark Crystal
The Skeksis and the Uru (Mystics) reunite and become one now that the crystal is repaired. The dark castle shatters and is left as a clean glass castle of light. One of the New Beings comes to Jen and thanks him for saving this world. He then ressurects Kira and tells Jen to Keep her close to him as they are part of each other. The New creatures leave the world of Thora to the Gelfling to enjoy.

10. Resolution- Labyrinth
Sarah remembers the line from her play and tells Jareth that he has no power over her. The world shatters and she awakes in her bed at home, with her brother safe in his cot.

Munchkin the Battle to WIN!

When we were given the Munchkin cards to play with in class I was actually quite excited because i've always wanted to play a non 'digital' role playing game.

Because i've never played a real life RPG before i knew the rules would be quite extensive and difficult to understand.
After reading all the rules I understood how to play.

The problem I felt was having to play with people who weren't enthusiastic about the game.
This is something that always happens with games. If your not enthusiastic about wanting to play its unlikely that you will enjoy it.

And with Card or Board games this is especially important that all players are interested otherwise some of the fun is lost.

When we sat down to play no one understood how to play correctly and we had trouble just setting up because the cards weren't marked very well and we didn't understand which card was a class card or a race card properly.

The Munchkin experience would have been great if we had someone who plays it regularly to play with us and show us how to play. The cards themselves i thought were very whimsical and funny. The game almost seems a satire on RPG whilst being an RPG game itself.

All in All i'd say my munchkin experience had left me wanting more, I plan to buy myself one of the Munchkin games and playing with people who are willing and wanting to play... oh dear i hope i'm not becoming a nerd :P haha

Early Gaming Experiences

thinking about the games i used to play when i was younger isn't difficult i can remember games level by level, what the cheats where how my thumbs would get sore from using my gameboy too much :P

But i can't narrow down what my first video game i ever played was.
I remember one of the first things i played on computer was kidspix which was a drawing game
and my mum used to take me to the market to get games on floppy disk which were demos/games of snes games that i would play on my computer such as
Speedy Gonzales
Bubsy in close encounters of the Furred Kind
The Lion King

I also used to play educational games
the series that stands out would have to be
The ClueFinders

Also the Legend of Zelda series on gameboy
and
Croc Legend of the Gobbos
ODDWORLD: Abe's Oddysee
Heart of Darkness

Games originally for me were an escape, I was able to be transported to these new worlds and discover and explore these environments someone else had created.
Now I prefer a game with a great story line, but there are many games which have next to no storyline at all.

Croc Legend of the Gobbos did have a storyline about how croc is searching for his mother, but there is no dialouge or written explanation that this is the story. It just is the story. you have to have read up on the game before hand or played the sequel to understand that. However the game was really creative and fun. the worlds were all so different and the difficulty curve kept me coming back for more.

many of my favorite childhood games i never fully completed until years and years later when I took them out to play and again. The Nostalgia is something that i enjoy in games.

This is why new games don't interest me too much unless they paralllel features or something from an old game I use to play...

I can't help it i'm Old Skool! :P

Munchkin BOOster - The Ghost Expansion Pack

Creating Evolution

Video games over the years have really and truly evolved before our eyes drastically.
when video games first began being more commercially available in the early 1970s with games such as Computer Space and Pong. Simplistic games with one objective were heavily played in peoples homes. Pong was simply a tennis type game with two players or one against a computer aiming to score points by shooting the ball passed the other players paddle.

Throughout the 70s and 80s Arcade games began to pop up with memorable classics such as

Pac Man
Space Invaders
Asteroids
Donkey Kong
Dragon's Lair
Super Mario Brothers
Duck Hunt
Metroid
Tetris
MegaMan
Prince of Persia


These games ring bells in any gamers heads and have been relentlessly revamped with sequels and special editions, and also been ported to countless consoles.
Eventually leading games into the realm of portable gaming.
a lot of these classics from the 70s and 80s were released on the Nintendo's Gameboy which was released late 1989 early 1990 over the world.
Games such as Tetris and Super Mario Land launched the console, and today with mobile gaming games truly have become a part of every day life, gaining time from commuters who have lengthy rides into work.

Graphics and the overall feel of games has been consistently changing too, not only does the look of the game increase interest to those who would otherwise not be interested in games, but it also determines the leading genre's for current games.
for example when i was younger and gameboy colour had just came out platform games were all the rage, also with the playstation 1 and nintendo 64 starting to experiment with 3d gaming platformers such as Spyro the Dragon, Croc Legend of the Gobbos, Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider were very big games. Now days however the platforming genre has dwindled.

with graphics advancing so much as well as the console's power and ability cinematic and sandbox games are very popular today, with games closing the line between film and game quite rapidly.

OH and i almost forgot, another catalyst for the evolution of games is the actual controls, which dictate what sort of games can be made,

as this humorous chart shows console developers have been playing with controls going from basic 4 button controllers to 16 or more buttons in a joystick or game pad. Currently motion games have been really popular such as the wii, playstation move and xbox kinect.
but it seems the market is shifting again to have screens inside our controllers as well... which has been done before with the psp and gameboy being able to be connected to ps3 and gamecube respectivly and add another element of gameplay. but now the base controller for nintendos next console is going to have a screen.

Who knows where games are going next? with things like augmented reality becoming more of a well... reality the line between real life and gaming is just going to get smaller and smaller until it seems no longer existent!

The Evolution of Fun

Fun,
its something that makes time fly by. As the saying goes 'all good things come to an end' i believe this is the essence of fun. When we are having fun time seems to be irrelevant and its over before we know it.
Over time our idea of fun, the fun thats relevant to us changes just as much as our taste buds.

Some people enjoy a certain type of fun whether it be playing musical instruments, or playing videogames and never grow tired of it.

Fun can be used to help us grasp concepts for example when we are young, growing and learning through kindergarden and primary school we are taught the alphabet through song, through music and rhythm we can learn our alphabet whilst having fun at the same time. We can remember the alphabet by reminiscing on the fun we had learning to recite our ABCs.

Fun is always associated with enjoyment. When we enjoy something and have enough time to fully enjoy it we are having fun.
Being able to recognise a certain target market's idea of fun, and then tailoring a product to meet it
can only bring success, but as i said before people's idea of fun is always changing so products/games need to evolve to continue to be enjoyed.

Hello World

First post :)