Motion graphics

What is motion graphics ?

Motion graphics are pieces of digital footage or animation which create the illusion of motion or rotation, and are usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects. Motion graphics are usually displayed via electronic media technology, but may also be displayed via manual powered technology (e.g. thaumatrope, phenakistoscope, stroboscope, zoetrope, praxinoscope, flip book). Motion graphics is a digital technique that combines pictures, words, sound and video. Motion graphics combine the languages of film, animation and graphic design. Combining different creative elements like typography, illustration, logos, shapes and video. They are then animated or moved in a way that tells a story. Like this link. https://vimeo.com/100506924

Three guiding principles : 

Orientation

Easily the most obvious benefit of motion in user experiences, orientation connects apps from one state to the next. Animation visually links the app’s orientation using contextual transitions. Its use creates a sense of space to where the user currently is and where he/she will go. If done correctly animation provides additional context to users, rather than implementing additional graphics to explain a user’s location within the app.

Perceived Speed

Motion can make websites and apps appear faster and more responsive than they actually are. To a certain degree, actual speed does not matter but perceived speed means everything to the user. If the user believes they are enjoying a fast experience, then he or she is likely to wait more patiently for content shifts

Emotional Response

Motion also adds another layer of depth to an interface’s character, which invokes a higher emotional response than static visuals. When one thinks about an individual’s personality, one thinks about body language and how the person moves. Movement and individual energy are integral to someone’s personality. The same can be said for how one perceives the motion in an interface. Bouncy, wiggly animations give a fun and quirky impression while concise and smooth easing gives the impression of a slick, calculated character.

Agar.io

What is Agar.io ?

Agar.io is a massively multiplayer action game created by Matheus Valadares. Players control a cell in a map representing a petri dish; the goal is to gain as much mass as possible by swallowing smaller cells without being swallowed by bigger ones. The name Agar.io comes from the substance agar, used to culture bacteria.

the gameplay of Agar.io :

Viruses split cells larger than them into many pieces (16 or less, depending on the mass) and smaller cells can hide underneath a virus for protection against larger cells. Viruses are normally randomly generated, but players can make new viruses by feeding a virus, i.e. ejecting a small fraction of a player's cell's mass into the virus a few times, causing the virus to split up and hence create another virus.

Players can split their cell into two, and one of the two evenly divided cells will be flung in the direction of the cursor (a maximum of 16 split cells). This can be used as a ranged attack to swallow other smaller cells, to escape an attack from another cell, or to move more quickly around the map.[8] Split cells eventually merge back into one cell. Aside from feeding viruses, players can eject (release) a small fraction of their mass to feed other cells, an action commonly recognized as an intention to team with another player. A player can also eject mass to trick enemies into coming closer to the player. Once an enemy cell is close enough, the player can split his/her cell to eat the baited enemy.

What You Can Learn from Agar.io ?

• The game is very public: Interesting gameplay and colorful graphics attracts people’s attention when walking by someone playing Agar.io. It’s super simple to get started and the game appeals to everyone. When we see people play in public spaces like a school or university, we would like to join and experience the same fun. We saw the same growth driver when we launched Fun Run. 
•  Ease for emotion: This is a competitive endless game, where the winner takes it all. When a bigger cell eats you after spending 15 minutes growing your own cell, it feels super frustrating. Strong emotions lead to increased sharing.
•  Onboarding: It’s rare to see a game that requires 1 click to go straight into the gameplay. There is no tutorial or account creation, which we like very much. When you start the app, it’s pretty clear that all you have to do is type your name and hit play. You don’t want to go through a lot of steps. We encourage all app developers to A/B-test whether to onboard the player straight into the game or to do tutorial and sign-up first. The result will guarantee surprise you!
• Including secrets: The game has no instructions leading to natural questions like “How can I get the Doge?” or “How can I attack the big cells?” Secrets make friends talk and knowing the answer to these questions increases your Social Currency: we share what makes us seem smart. Letting players ask these questions to friends and spread the word is a brilliant move.
• App Size: The app size is important for growth. This might be intuitive for most, but yet we see too many apps not size optimized. Too big games can’t be downloaded over cellular networks, and in addition, you loose the market of low-end devices. 

Suggestions for Further Growth :

• Capture screenshot of game: While playing we found ourselves wanting to easily capture the screen to prove how well we were doing. Unfortunately, it was tough to decide to jeopardize the game due to the milliseconds needed to take a screenshot. There should be a screen capture feature added to the game scene as we included in the dissection.

• Play with friends: Let players invite friends to the game and make it easier to match up and play together. We never experienced to be matched together in a game, which was something that would have made the multiplayer experience even better!

• Incentivize sharing: By sharing with friends, the player could unlock new features like skins or animations. I.e. you can either play 50 times to unlock a special skin or invite a friend. This could also be powerful in relation to giving the player a choice, as discussed in the dissections of Angry Birds 2 and Soda Saga.

• Share GIFs: Be able to share a GIF of your last 5 seconds. During these time players are usually in a highly competitive moment and they would like to share and show off to friends.

Metaphors

Definition of metaphors: A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers to something as being the same as another thing for rhetorical effect. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas. Where a simile compares two items, a metaphor directly equates them, and does not use "like" or "as" as does a simile.

Metaphors in Pac-Man game: In Pac-Man the basic pick up are the DOTS. The player eats them as it walks through the map. The player becomes empowered to eat ghosts when it gets ENERGIZED DOTS. Eating is the core action of Pac-Man.

From time to time FRUITS appear on the center of the map. They act as bonus pick ups. The metaphor is simple: they are harmless and they are eatable, so you should eat them. Eating more is awesome. Fruits are good.

Strangely, the ghosts don’t eat you back. Instead you disintegrate when they touch you. It creates a separation between the player and its objective (to eat the dots) and the enemies and their objectives (to haunt the player). Pac-man dies after being confronted by this out-of-life presence. Ghosts are scary. But imagine what Pac-man would look like if instead of ghosts we had Dinosaurs or Tigers trying to eat Pac-man, as Pac-man eats the dots. Now there’s no separation. The enemies are not out-of-this-world creatures. We are all the same. Maybe the players would eventually stop running and allow themselves to be eaten. Maybe we should all eventually stop running. Could it be that somehow having ghosts chasing you around narrow corridors is less scary and traumatic than realizing we are also just an afternoon snack of someone else’s reality?

PAUSE

A totally new mobile relaxation and meditation experience for a calmer state of mind.

PAUSE is a collaboration between Ustwo and Danish mental health companyPauseAble.

The background of Pause:     Nowadays, it can sometimes feel as though stress and anxiety wreak havoc in our lives. Like many others, PauseAble founder Peng Cheng struggled with stress and anxiety, and it got to the point where it was affecting both his life and his work. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, quite literally, he began practicing ancient Tai Chi and mindfulness to change his destructive patterns. With a background in interaction design, he saw an opportunity to combining these techniques with modern technology. Peng reached out to Ustwo, and together we began to explore creating an engaging user experience for his research – a product that could actually help people to relax and reduce stress.

And my game is help people have a good sleep and relax. My story is that the dreamcatcher waves the good dreams by eating them which small than itself and away from the nightmare.

Dreamcatcher

Dreamcatcher may have the symbolic value but in the design it is the form of inorganic and artificially designed spider. Dreamcatcher is made using hands and features a willow hoop. The loose web or net is woven on the hoop. This object is further decorated using beads and even feathers. Dreamcatcher was created by the indigenous people of the North America, who are also referred to as Ojibwe. According to the legend, there was a spider woman whom the people called Asibikaashi. She used to take care of the people and the children of their motherland. But when the indidenous Ojibwe people began to spread to the other parts of the country, it became impossible to Asibikaashi to provide protection to all. Therefore, the magical web called dreamcatcher was created. This object was designed to keep the bad dreams away for sound sleep.

Today, dreamcather is mostly an object of decor. However, some people believe that it can still help in keeping away the bad dreams and catching the good ones.