Game Art and Machinima Research: Over the Hedge

By Meg Sugden
The next game that I wanted to look at was Over the Hedge the video game. This is a game that follows a group of animals that live in the gardens and surroundings of a small town in America and is set a year after the 2006 film. RJ, Hammy, Verne and the rest of the gang feel that need to have more things for the log, which is there home behind the hedge so this leads to them going on an adventure to steal different items that they think could be useful such a more food, a popcorn machine and a TV. Throughout the game there is also the constant threat from the Sniffer, Dwayne the Verminator, who used mind-controlled vermin to try and capture the gang and Vincent the bear who still has a grudge against RJ from the film.

The general character look very good and are all very well designed and look how they should in terms of how they did in the film. The characters all have human qualities and walk on there back legs, something which appeals to us as we want to use this technique for our own characters as we feel that this is an interesting technique to use. The characters all have their own personalities, which are taken from the film, but portrayed very well into the game and the variation of different animals works really well as it means that they all have their own abilities and different qualities.

The environments are what really work about this game, they are very well designed and prove quite unique from each level. We see the characters venture through the suburbs of America and enter different houses, which do admittedly look pretty similar just different layouts, but then also wander the streets at night and even have adventures in the back of vans and on trains. The environments all look really nice and bright and stick with the cartoon theme that the characters use. I really like the environments and this is the kind of style that we want to portray in our own environment so that it can keep within the theme of our cartoon idea. The environments look great and there is always a lot of detail in each one to keep the player amused and this is something that we want to ensure that we have as we want to keep the audience engaged in not only what the characters are doing but also the background.

In terms of the cut scenes, they are okay but are obviously pre-rendered as they are much improved from the rest of the gameplay and include a lot more background detail and small details. This is something that we want to include, but if were making a game to go with it, we would want our cut scenes to match up with the gameplay and not make it look worse, which this kind of does. The cut scenes are good to watch, they do include humour as the game is based off a comedy film and they are fun to watch, although could be seen as skip-worthy compared to other cut scenes that I have been researching.