The following is an update as to my activity with the 3rd CLOUD game project:
Final Testing:
This week, Drew, Henry, and I are going to be testing for bugs and inconsistencies with the first level of 3rd Cloud. We have also at this point decided to abandon the second two clouds in order to make a polished first cloud.
Game Event Mapping:
We are currently editing some of the story in order to meet the teams needs for which they wish to have in the game. This will be finalized and implemented by next week.
Manual:
A manual is required for this game to work most effectively. I will be in charge of making this manual so our users will be able to be guided through our world of magic.
Weekly Meeting Times:
Our last meeting was in the Games Room on Tuesday Novemeber, 27th at 2:00 PM. Our next meeting will be at the same time, location, and day of the week.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, we will have a complete first cloud with a basic user manual.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Week Twelve 3RD CLOUD Project Update
The following is an update as to my activity with the 3rd CLOUD game project:
User Testing:
I was in charge of the user testing. I was able to find and test five test subjects and record the data of our prototype.
Game Event Mapping:
We have finalized the game map for the first cloud. The mapping for the second and third cloud have been delayed to ensure one solid level will be created, the first cloud.
Weekly Meeting Times:
Our last meeting was in the Games Room on Tuesday Novemeber, 14th at 2:00 PM. Our next meeting will be at the same time, location, and day of the week.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I would like to polish up the first cloud. After this we can move onto the details of the other two clouds.
User Testing:
I was in charge of the user testing. I was able to find and test five test subjects and record the data of our prototype.
Game Event Mapping:
We have finalized the game map for the first cloud. The mapping for the second and third cloud have been delayed to ensure one solid level will be created, the first cloud.
Weekly Meeting Times:
Our last meeting was in the Games Room on Tuesday Novemeber, 14th at 2:00 PM. Our next meeting will be at the same time, location, and day of the week.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I would like to polish up the first cloud. After this we can move onto the details of the other two clouds.
Week Eleven Class Critiques
Mechanics
Two main mechanics are important to this game: Movement and Attacking. A variety of both of these mechanics can be seen with the vast selection of units that have all different types of movement and attacking differences (some have higher hit points and attack from others while others are cheaper). The only problem is possible balance issues with the different mechanics. Some units will be obviously better than others but the cost needs to match the advantage; otherwise we will have the same problem Advance Wars for the Nintendo DS has with Megatanks, too cheap in cost and too powerful to play.
Dynamics
To help support the mechanics and challenge the player, two things can be done: have special terrain bonuses and have specialized units. By having terrain bonuses, penalties, and restrictions, the user has to critically think about which units they have to purchase for each round. For instance, you can make it so in arctic storms, air vehicles can’t be used and all other units move at half speed. Also, by having specialized units the user again has an extra element of strategy to consider. For instance, having anti air infantry would be super effective against air and normal against armored vehicles. Regular infantry however could decimate this unit type.
Aesthetics
The major forms of fun that are in this game are narrative, challenge, expression, and sensation. The game has a very basic story line: two factions, one trying to take over the world and the other is saving it. This kind of story is always welcome for this genre of game. It is challenging because you need to be able to strategically determine and plan against another player. It is expressive in the sense that you can choose what you want in your army and you can eliminate choices and make custom force. Finally, it is sensation because of how the user feels after winning or losing a battle. They will feel the most positive sensation if they win a close match.
Legend of Chopstick Chung
Mechanics
The major mechanic in this game is the ability of the player to click the mouse. Because of this, it is important to make this mechanic as fun and dynamic as possible. Simply clicking can tire after repeated or extended periods of time. Having ways to affect the speed of the clicking or how fast the player has to click will assist with the dynamics of the game.
Dynamics
As said earlier, having different ways of effecting the clicking will help keep the game interesting. There are two ways that this can be done. The first way is to have the time of the game effected either through progressing through the game or having it done every so often on a timer. The second way is through power ups that effect how you click or allow you to mess with time. An example of this could be a scatter click where it would count as a giant click within a certain radius of the click origin.
Aesthetics
The main forms of fun in this game are challenge, fantasy, and submission. It is challenging because of the dynamic way you have to click to achieve points. An example of this is with the first level of the game where you have to catch flies with chopsticks. It is fantasy because of the theme, main character and tasks the player is required to perform. Finally, it is submission because it takes the player little time to complete each task, like Warioware.
Deep Field
Mechanics
The main mechanic for this game is the ability to click the mouse. Like with Chopsticks Chong, it is important to make this mechanic as fun and dynamic as possible. Simply clicking can tire after repeated or extended periods of time. Having ways to effect the speed of the clicking or how fast the player has to click will assist with the dynamics of the game. Because this is being done in a 3D environment, having the clicking done from all angles and possibly having different effects could prove to be entertaining.
Dynamics
The best way to increase the dynamics of this game is to take advantage of the 3D environment that the game is being done in and the speed of the AI. By having enemies that jump or fly at the opponent, it makes the player think as to how they can avoid both land and air based attacks. Also, by having AI at varying speeds, you can have AI that can blitzkrieg the player and have other computers that are a creeping doom. This will help ad to the suspense of the game.
Aesthetics
The main forms of fun in this game like Chopstick Chong are challenge, fantasy, and submission. It is challenging because of the dynamic way you have to click to achieve points. An example of this is when you have to strategize between opponents of different speeds. It is fantasy because of the theme, main character and tasks the player is required to perform. Finally, it is submission because you are required to perform repetitive tasks for a short duration of time until a level is complete.
Dynasty
Mechanics
The two main mechanics for this game is the ability to interact with objects and movement. Based on the genre of game this is, it will be difficult to keep these mechanics interesting. The simplest way would be to create some kind of barrier that the user would have to somehow find a creative way to get past.
Dynamics
The Dynamics of the game will be determined by the difficulty and the creativity involved with the puzzles used. They have to be balanced enough for the player to be challenged by not frustrated. To help with this, barriers again can be used to help increase the challenge of these puzzles.
Aesthetics
This uses the following forms of fun: Sensation, Narrative, Fantasy, Challenge and Discovery. Challenge and discovery is felt through the thought process of completing puzzles while sensation is felt through the successful completion of the puzzles. Narrative is taken from Chinese history but with the time mix up twist. Finally, fantasy can be seen through the unrealistic backgrounds and character designs.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Week Ten Class Critiques
Stick Ninja
Mechanics
The main mechanic in your game is your ability to strike your opponent. You were able to recognize this early and you already have a support structure for your main mechanic: you have super effective weapons and least effective weapons against certain types of enemies. The only problem I can see is with any secondary mechanics that you might have such as movement. Take for instance if you wanted to use the Torque 3D engine for this game. If you have movement in a 3D environment then that changes the dynamics of how you strike at someone because it is easy for you strafe around them if you are fast or you have be powerful if you are slow. The only exception to this is if you are making this a turn based strategy game like an early version of Final Fantasy.
Dynamics
The main dynamics of this game is the variety of opponents the user can face off against. This not only effects the mechanics of the game, because certain weapons are effective against certain monsters, but also because you can absorb the powers of the monsters you defeat making the enemy weapons either ineffective or super effective against you. This gives the game additional strategy because the player has to worry both about themselves and their enemy resistances. The only problem I see for this is the possibility for having random encounters. The reason for this is because if the encounters are random for the user then it makes it incredibly difficult to make a strategy. The user would be forced to use the strongest weapon rather than the most efficient strategy.
Aesthetics
The main forms of fun being used in this game are challenge, fantasy, narrative, expression and discovery. To help support challenge, you have created the intricate strategy system outlined above. For fantasy and narrative, you have made a character that is entirely fictitious, cartoon like and put him in a fantasy based story line. As for expression and discovery, the user has the choice to customize his character for combat and can figure out the effectiveness of character type and weapon combinations.
Zodiac War
Mechanics
For a 2D fighting game, the two main mechanics are the ability to move around and the ability to strike opponents. For movement, it is the same as normal 2D fighting games and that is acceptable since it is the norm. For attacking though, it is important to have a balance in variety of moves for the user to choose from. If the user is limited in their attack selection then they will button mash constantly. If there are too many attacks then the user will pick the best move and use it the most. With a balance of power on selection the player will feel as though they have a larger choice of good quality moves and will then use the variety given to them.
Dynamics
The easiest way to create dynamics in a 2D fighting game is to balance the speed of the game. If the game is fast paced, which most 2D fighting games are, then the user is expected to fight within the bounds of the speed and attempt to use the speed to his/her advantage. By having means to change the speed of the game, either literally with time stop or speed up abilities, or practically with super moves, this creates new and different strategies for the user to implement.
Aesthetics
Sensation, fantasy, challenge and submission are the main forms of fun for this game. To create a sense of sensation, the user will take great pleasure in decimating their opponent especially if the opponent provides a challenge against them. The fantasy of the game is supported in the non-realistic maneuvers. The challenge is provided by having the user face off against different human opponents as well as having them face off against different avatars with unique moves. Finally, this is a submissive game because it is not meant to last for hours like an RPG. It is meant to take several minutes to play the entirety of the game and have replay value because of the character selection available to the player.
Crack Quest
Mechanics
The two most important mechanics in the game is the ability to move in a 2D space and the ability to shoot. Because of this it is important to have power ups, environments and enemies that either hinder or help these mechanics. One example of this could be glue on the floor to slow the user down or some kind of drug that boosts the character speed.
Dynamics
Like Metal Slug, there is a lot that happens in a very short period of time. The user wants to scroll through the level as quickly and safely as possible. Because of this, it needs to be a fast paced game with lots of enemies to shoot down. Also, there should be multiple ways to destroy enemies and enemies should also be resistant to some ways of destruction.
Aesthetics
Like Zodiac War, sensation, fantasy, challenge and submission are the main forms of fun for this game. To create a sense of sensation, the user will take great pleasure in decimating their opponent especially if the opponent provides a challenge against them. The fantasy of the game is supported in the non-realistic characters and quests. The challenge is provided by having the user face off against different opponents but more importantly a large number of them. Finally, this is a submissive game because it is not meant to last for hours like an RPG. It is meant to take several minutes to play the entirety of the game.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Week Eleven 3RD CLOUD Project Update
The following is an update as to my activity with the 3rd CLOUD game project:
Game Mapping:
We are finalizing the map of the first and second cloud over the next few days. The map will take about 15 minutes to 20 minutes to travel across while completing quests along the way.
Game Event Mapping:
A draft of the second half of the First Cloud is complete and needs to be approved by the group. Also a draft of the second cloud is almost complete.
Weekly Meeting Times:
Our last meeting was in the Games Room on Tuesday November, 7th at 2:00 PM. Our next meeting will be at the same time, location, and day of the week.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I would like to have the events for all three clouds complete. The map of all three clouds will be complete. Also the menus for the clouds will be complete.
Game Mapping:
We are finalizing the map of the first and second cloud over the next few days. The map will take about 15 minutes to 20 minutes to travel across while completing quests along the way.
Game Event Mapping:
A draft of the second half of the First Cloud is complete and needs to be approved by the group. Also a draft of the second cloud is almost complete.
Weekly Meeting Times:
Our last meeting was in the Games Room on Tuesday November, 7th at 2:00 PM. Our next meeting will be at the same time, location, and day of the week.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I would like to have the events for all three clouds complete. The map of all three clouds will be complete. Also the menus for the clouds will be complete.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Week Nine Class Critiques
Food Fight:
Mechanics
The three mechanics of this piece that should be focused on is the movement mechanic, the shooting mechanic, and the fog of war mechanic. All of these have a very unique way of changing the game play. Having items and power ups to support these mechanics are important to create an interesting and dynamic such as faster/slower movement power ups, inaccurate hi damage weapons, accurate low damage weapons, fast and slow weapons, temporary omniscience, and dizzying food.
In the presentation it was mentioned that the ability of the individual characters where not tested. Because they manipulate the various mechanics you have, another prototyping session is required where these abilities can be critically analyzed.
Dynamics
I think that the most powerful dynamic in this game is the suspense created with a fog of war. The only problem is that this mechanic does not match theme, a food fight. Generally when one has a food fight, you can see all your opponents. A more appropriate way to support the theme is not with a fog of war, but with just a limited view of the war, like with Liero. This limited view on the world brings in a new form of play, blind shooting, but does not give the illusion of exterior darkness.
Aesthetics
The four types of fun of this game are Competition, Challenge, Fantasy, and Sensation. Your aesthetics are well supported by your mechanics and dynamics. It has a fun loving and cartoon like look to it giving the sense of fantasy. Also, the theme itself supports this form of the aesthetic, a food fight in a school cafeteria. There is and competition challenge because you are fighting human opponents with special powers. There is sensation because you are dealing with enemies in an unknown location.
Drive Thru Tycoon:
Mechanics
The mechanic in this game is single click optimization strategy game, pointing and clicking in a pattern to achieve a tasty outcome. This is a very enjoyable mechanic because of its simplicity. However, it is important to be able to optimize one’s clicking and combinations with some kind of items, upgrading appliances, super appliances, super managers and employees. There should also be items that can give bonuses for some things but penalties for others. There should also be some items or situations that some how to make the user click additional times, such as double patty burgers.
Dynamics
The best way to support the dynamics of this game is to create suspense and a sense of urgency in the player. This can be done by having uncontrollable events such as having lunch and dinner rushes or even having city wide emergencies that require you to serve a lot of food at a discounted price.
It would be intriguing if the player was able to control the price of the food and make their own dinner and lunch rushes. This combined with random events could assist in changing the feel and pace of the game. Also, perhaps having several modes of play to entice users could help achieve long term playability, such as having a sandbox mode, a greed mode, a survival mode, etc.
Aesthetics
For a game like this, it is most important to have appropriate aesthetics in order to help immerse the user. By know that this game contains components of expression, submission, challenge, fantasy and narrative, the game can maximize its effectiveness on the audience. Because it is an expressive game, it is important to have a variety of appliances and looks to the fast food establishment. Otherwise the user may be uninterested in what they see and do because this is not “their” place. It is also a very submissive game where missions last only a few minutes rather than a lengthy period of time. It is with this that that sense of urgency is important to implement to make minutes seem like hours. It also provides a challenge to the user to have to remember their orders let alone work on a timer. Like most Tycoon games it is a vary fantasy based game where either the equipment that you use is very much make believe or the look of it is, as though it is from a cartoon. Finally, it is important to know that there is a narrative that is taking place. The user is making the story of their fast food place. The great thing about this is that the user will make this almost for you. The only flaw with this though is that it makes missions rather difficult to implement because not all stories will want to follow the same line of quests.
Circular Strife
Mechanics
The two primary mechanics for this game are the ability to move in a 3D environment and the ability to drop bombs. Because of this, the user should have some way of being able to manipulate these. One example could be simple power ups that make the avatar of the main character speed up or have dud bombs that actually slow down the user. Another example is having big and small bomb power ups or power ups that give you longer chains.
One of the biggest problems with the mechanics is with the accuracy of the players. By having chains of a certain size and needing to be a certain distance from the ruins to blow them up, this may frustrate the users.
Dynamics
To solve the problem with the above mechanic, it can be fixed by having several different modes that require different skill levels to complete to allow for tiered complexity. This will help make the game appeal to players.
Also, as was tested, having a time trial or at least multiple modes for the player it use the mechanics would diversify the game allowing players to have the option of repeat playability.
Aesthetics
Based on this game’s four main forms of fun, fantasy, challenge, submission and discovery, an interesting idea is developing. First off, it is in a fictionally based universe full of sky ruins. With some possibly cartoon graphics, fantasy is heavily supported. There is obvious challenge with the bombing placements and the submission of missions taking several minutes to do gives it a pick up and play feel. Also, with new ruin sites and varying bomb locations, there is a definite sense of discovery.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Week Ten 3RD CLOUD Project Update
The following is an update as to my activity with the 3rd CLOUD game project:
Game Menus:
Development of the game menus has stalled. I have only been able to have them in draft form. It is more imperative that my attention is placed on other aspects of the game. The menu will be finished by the launch of the prototype.
Game Mapping:
Drew and I are not designing the map of the 3rd CLOUD. However, we decided that we will build the map for each cloud and work on each cloud as though they were their own independent game. Because of this, it is the first cloud map that has been finalized and the second and third are still in production.
Game Event Mapping:
This is where most of my attention has been placed. Because of our moral mechanic that involves are artifact of evil, we want to be have particular events take place based on who has the artifact, and who wins certain combat. It is this we have mapped out for the first half of the first cloud. The team has been sent the mapping of it and Drew will be building the events as specified.
Weekly Meeting Times:
Our last meeting was in the Games Room on Tuesday October, 30th at 2:00 PM. Our next meeting will be at the same time, location, and day of the week.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I would like to have the events for the first two clouds complete and a draft of the second cloud complete. I would like to have the first cloud menu finalized and added to the game.
Game Menus:
Development of the game menus has stalled. I have only been able to have them in draft form. It is more imperative that my attention is placed on other aspects of the game. The menu will be finished by the launch of the prototype.
Game Mapping:
Drew and I are not designing the map of the 3rd CLOUD. However, we decided that we will build the map for each cloud and work on each cloud as though they were their own independent game. Because of this, it is the first cloud map that has been finalized and the second and third are still in production.
Game Event Mapping:
This is where most of my attention has been placed. Because of our moral mechanic that involves are artifact of evil, we want to be have particular events take place based on who has the artifact, and who wins certain combat. It is this we have mapped out for the first half of the first cloud. The team has been sent the mapping of it and Drew will be building the events as specified.
Weekly Meeting Times:
Our last meeting was in the Games Room on Tuesday October, 30th at 2:00 PM. Our next meeting will be at the same time, location, and day of the week.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I would like to have the events for the first two clouds complete and a draft of the second cloud complete. I would like to have the first cloud menu finalized and added to the game.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Week Nine 3RD CLOUD Project Update
The following are the updates that have happened over the past week:
Game Menus:
I discussed the look and feel of the menus with my team. A final version of the menus will be available later on in the week. Some minor edits have been made but I now need to go into RPG Maker to see the format of their menus so we can properly import them into RPG Maker.
Cloud Mapping:
Drew and I will be sitting down later on in the week to draft the rest of the story and finalize the cloud mapping. I shown the team my sketches so the team can get on mapping the game roughly in RPG maker.
Weekly Meeting Time:
Tuesdays meetings will go from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM. Last week we met in the games room of the Library.
Next Weeks Objectives:
This weeks deliverables have fallen behind. For next week, I am hoping to have the map of the first, second, and third cloud finished. I also hope to have the menus finalized. I also hope to have the story for the first cloud to be completely finished. These details need to be finished in order for us to remain on schedule.
Game Menus:
I discussed the look and feel of the menus with my team. A final version of the menus will be available later on in the week. Some minor edits have been made but I now need to go into RPG Maker to see the format of their menus so we can properly import them into RPG Maker.
Cloud Mapping:
Drew and I will be sitting down later on in the week to draft the rest of the story and finalize the cloud mapping. I shown the team my sketches so the team can get on mapping the game roughly in RPG maker.
Weekly Meeting Time:
Tuesdays meetings will go from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM. Last week we met in the games room of the Library.
Next Weeks Objectives:
This weeks deliverables have fallen behind. For next week, I am hoping to have the map of the first, second, and third cloud finished. I also hope to have the menus finalized. I also hope to have the story for the first cloud to be completely finished. These details need to be finished in order for us to remain on schedule.
Week Eight Class Critiques
The following is feedback for the teams that presented in Week Eight:
ANTLION
Mechanics
It appears that your mechanics are very clear for the player. The purpose of the game is to prevent yourself from being hunted by the ever threatening ant lion. As an ant your only true defense is your cunning and your speed. This is a very simple, appropriate, and fun mechanic to implement. Many other games that meant for a more well rounded user use a similar approach, namely for racing games. It is important to keep this your fundamental mechanic and avoid creating power ups that would disrupt this, such as by creating an easy to attain weapon that would damage or even kill the ant lion.
Dynamics
To make the dynamics of the game the most interesting to the player, a sense of suspense should be created over minutes rather than hours. It seems that the game you are trying to create is one meant to last for short durations of simple game play and because of this, it is important to have a more intense sense of possible doom to the player as they are playing this game. My suggestion is to have an ant lion that is not completely seen to the player and have it so no matter how fast the players go, there is some way for the ant lion to disrupt or interfere with the players strategy. This will help meet the need for a challenge to the player while not making it impossible to meet or see the ant lion.
Aesthetics
To me, the types of fun that you are using for your game are challenge, discovery, and submission and with this comes several considerations for your game. To create the challenge of the game, you have decided to create a basically invincible opponent that stalks you over time and is always looming over your shoulder, which is a significant but important design choice. You have a small sense of discovery if you choose to implement some kind of power up system. This will allow players to interact within their ecosystem in different ways. Finally, based on the description that was given and as already touched upon in dynamics, this would make a very good short duration game. Because of this, the view, art, and special effects so match a sense of urgency with the ant needing to escape.
FINS OF FURY
Mechanics
You have two important mechanics to consider for this game: point and click combat and three dimensional movement. Make sure for your point and click combat that you may close detail to your close combat collision detection. Many games have run into trouble, like Superman 64, because it was too difficult to attack an enemy up close.
There are a few design considerations that you will have to make for your movement. Because you are planning on having this being a third person real time combat game, like Resident Evil 4, and because you are making this underwater, it does not make sense to me to give your players the ability to strafe from side to side (or at least as a tadpole). However, to maintain continuity and because players are use to being able to strafe in a first person and third person environment, are you going to give it to them anyways?
Dynamics
The biggest concern that I have about the dynamics of this game is making it too easy for the players to win because of the AI of the NPCs. I think that you can be really creative and you can define your opponents personalities and have it compare to some measure of your user (number of kills over duration of time for example). If you have three different mind sets for an opponent, such as easy, medium, and hard or passive, normal, and aggressive, you can have the game be easy at some times (when you need healing) and difficult during other times (when the player is killing things left, right and center).
Aesthetics
You have many types of fun for your game: Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Discovery, and Expression. With these many types of fun comes an expectation from the user. To be able to help support the sense of fantasy, have outrageous looking characters, both opponents and friendly NPCs. Have dangers that exist to tadpoles in the real world and within the magic circle your are trying to develop (for instance, have polluted zones deal damage to the tadpole over time). You can also make special quests that help immerse the player into the fantasy and the narrative more.
The game itself can only be challenging if the dynamics allow for it (refer to dynamics sections for suggestions). As far as Discovery and Expression, it was mentioned that the tadpole will upgrade itself by growing legs, arms, and a body. It would be really interesting if you could choose which part of your body you can add first, arms versus legs, because this will allow the player to customize their frog based on their playing style, power versus speed. This will also allow the player to explore the environment from two different perspectives allowing for two different modes of play, a slower but more high powered mode or a faster less powered mode.
MIZU
Mechanics
The main mechanic you are going to need to focus on is your cannon firing mechanic. By having the effect of it dynamic with the ability to charge you leave it open to the player as to how they should use it. Should they conserve water and to small individual shots or should they over kill with a single charged shot. Make sure that the power ups that you have help support the types of shots the player can do or how accurately they can do it.
A secondary mechanic you have is movement. Because you are having a 2D side scrolling game, your movement is fairly simple, up, down left and right. If you have power ups or another system of improving this can all add to the game.
Dynamics
I like how you are adding the negative feedback twist with the weapon. By having it so the player can not have the weapon readied at full power all the time forces the player to properly conserve their resources. Even though this does add an extra challenge to the game, be aware that it also makes the game forces the player to conform more to a more conservative playing style rather than a readied power playing style, like in Megaman.
I think it would be important to find a way to limit and enhance the players movement. Having a fast or slow player can make the difference between victory and defeat. Also, temporarily limiting or even disabling someones ability to jump changes the way a player interacts in their environment. This can add to the challenge to the game without having to scale some of the enemy NPCs.
Aesthetics
The strongest types of fun that you are appealing to are as follows: Challenge, Discovery, Expression, and Submission. I believe that you have all four of these well thought out. With challenge, you can limit the players ability by giving them curses them or enhancing them by giving them power ups. The players can find their best combinations of power ups and how they can most optimally interact in the environment, which appeals to the sense of discovery and expression. Submission is the only form of fun that I am unsure how you are going about. To me, like with team AntLion, if you manipulate the environment to help create a sense of urgency and making multiple and different power ups, you can make this a quick game that is enjoyable for multiple iterations, even after the player has completed the game.
TESTING 1... 2... 3
Mechanics
There are two fundamental game mechanics for this game: combat system and 2D movement. The combat system I am actually unsure how you are going about it. Is it single click combat (click onces to swipe a sword) or is it pattern combat (type in a pattern to get a combination of attacks). Both of which come with different benefits and problems. Single click will allow you to have simple combat but can have a problem with making the game challenging without compromising collision detection or the power of the players. Combo attacks allows for more aesthetics but makes the learning curve higher.
The second mechanic you have is 2D movement. Make sure that you have items that enhance this mechanic as well. I remember you saying that this is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. Keep in mind they too have ways of both enhancing and disrupting movement with everything from potions of expeditious retreat to tangle foot bags.
Dynamics
The easiest way to help balance out the dynamics of the game are to give your opponents and the players access to similar abilities. For instance if the players have a way to stop enemy movement, then the enemies should have a way slow the players.
You had mentioned that you wanted to have a party based game but were considering making this a single player game. The best way to have the best of both worlds is to have the player select their character from your selection of characters and then have the computer select 3 other characters that will play with the character, similar to Guildwars. This will allow you to make the game more challenging to the player and still have the feel of dungeon crawling with a group.
Aesthetics
There are four types of fun that you are appealing to in this: Fantasy, Challenge, Discover, and Expression. To appeal to fantasy, going for the medieval look is good choice. It is easy to make stereotypes out of the genre, such as the wizard, fighter, thief, priest and what not. You already recognize that the game needs to have more balance both in enemy and player abilities.
The players are going to be looking for someway to enhance they character. By giving someway to internally enhancing their characters (skill trees or ability selection) and power ups. By having a diverse set of power ups and character enhancement players can enjoy playing the game in multiple iterations with different outcomes and strategies for each character, power ups, and ability selection.
ANTLION
Mechanics
It appears that your mechanics are very clear for the player. The purpose of the game is to prevent yourself from being hunted by the ever threatening ant lion. As an ant your only true defense is your cunning and your speed. This is a very simple, appropriate, and fun mechanic to implement. Many other games that meant for a more well rounded user use a similar approach, namely for racing games. It is important to keep this your fundamental mechanic and avoid creating power ups that would disrupt this, such as by creating an easy to attain weapon that would damage or even kill the ant lion.
Dynamics
To make the dynamics of the game the most interesting to the player, a sense of suspense should be created over minutes rather than hours. It seems that the game you are trying to create is one meant to last for short durations of simple game play and because of this, it is important to have a more intense sense of possible doom to the player as they are playing this game. My suggestion is to have an ant lion that is not completely seen to the player and have it so no matter how fast the players go, there is some way for the ant lion to disrupt or interfere with the players strategy. This will help meet the need for a challenge to the player while not making it impossible to meet or see the ant lion.
Aesthetics
To me, the types of fun that you are using for your game are challenge, discovery, and submission and with this comes several considerations for your game. To create the challenge of the game, you have decided to create a basically invincible opponent that stalks you over time and is always looming over your shoulder, which is a significant but important design choice. You have a small sense of discovery if you choose to implement some kind of power up system. This will allow players to interact within their ecosystem in different ways. Finally, based on the description that was given and as already touched upon in dynamics, this would make a very good short duration game. Because of this, the view, art, and special effects so match a sense of urgency with the ant needing to escape.
FINS OF FURY
Mechanics
You have two important mechanics to consider for this game: point and click combat and three dimensional movement. Make sure for your point and click combat that you may close detail to your close combat collision detection. Many games have run into trouble, like Superman 64, because it was too difficult to attack an enemy up close.
There are a few design considerations that you will have to make for your movement. Because you are planning on having this being a third person real time combat game, like Resident Evil 4, and because you are making this underwater, it does not make sense to me to give your players the ability to strafe from side to side (or at least as a tadpole). However, to maintain continuity and because players are use to being able to strafe in a first person and third person environment, are you going to give it to them anyways?
Dynamics
The biggest concern that I have about the dynamics of this game is making it too easy for the players to win because of the AI of the NPCs. I think that you can be really creative and you can define your opponents personalities and have it compare to some measure of your user (number of kills over duration of time for example). If you have three different mind sets for an opponent, such as easy, medium, and hard or passive, normal, and aggressive, you can have the game be easy at some times (when you need healing) and difficult during other times (when the player is killing things left, right and center).
Aesthetics
You have many types of fun for your game: Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Discovery, and Expression. With these many types of fun comes an expectation from the user. To be able to help support the sense of fantasy, have outrageous looking characters, both opponents and friendly NPCs. Have dangers that exist to tadpoles in the real world and within the magic circle your are trying to develop (for instance, have polluted zones deal damage to the tadpole over time). You can also make special quests that help immerse the player into the fantasy and the narrative more.
The game itself can only be challenging if the dynamics allow for it (refer to dynamics sections for suggestions). As far as Discovery and Expression, it was mentioned that the tadpole will upgrade itself by growing legs, arms, and a body. It would be really interesting if you could choose which part of your body you can add first, arms versus legs, because this will allow the player to customize their frog based on their playing style, power versus speed. This will also allow the player to explore the environment from two different perspectives allowing for two different modes of play, a slower but more high powered mode or a faster less powered mode.
MIZU
Mechanics
The main mechanic you are going to need to focus on is your cannon firing mechanic. By having the effect of it dynamic with the ability to charge you leave it open to the player as to how they should use it. Should they conserve water and to small individual shots or should they over kill with a single charged shot. Make sure that the power ups that you have help support the types of shots the player can do or how accurately they can do it.
A secondary mechanic you have is movement. Because you are having a 2D side scrolling game, your movement is fairly simple, up, down left and right. If you have power ups or another system of improving this can all add to the game.
Dynamics
I like how you are adding the negative feedback twist with the weapon. By having it so the player can not have the weapon readied at full power all the time forces the player to properly conserve their resources. Even though this does add an extra challenge to the game, be aware that it also makes the game forces the player to conform more to a more conservative playing style rather than a readied power playing style, like in Megaman.
I think it would be important to find a way to limit and enhance the players movement. Having a fast or slow player can make the difference between victory and defeat. Also, temporarily limiting or even disabling someones ability to jump changes the way a player interacts in their environment. This can add to the challenge to the game without having to scale some of the enemy NPCs.
Aesthetics
The strongest types of fun that you are appealing to are as follows: Challenge, Discovery, Expression, and Submission. I believe that you have all four of these well thought out. With challenge, you can limit the players ability by giving them curses them or enhancing them by giving them power ups. The players can find their best combinations of power ups and how they can most optimally interact in the environment, which appeals to the sense of discovery and expression. Submission is the only form of fun that I am unsure how you are going about. To me, like with team AntLion, if you manipulate the environment to help create a sense of urgency and making multiple and different power ups, you can make this a quick game that is enjoyable for multiple iterations, even after the player has completed the game.
TESTING 1... 2... 3
Mechanics
There are two fundamental game mechanics for this game: combat system and 2D movement. The combat system I am actually unsure how you are going about it. Is it single click combat (click onces to swipe a sword) or is it pattern combat (type in a pattern to get a combination of attacks). Both of which come with different benefits and problems. Single click will allow you to have simple combat but can have a problem with making the game challenging without compromising collision detection or the power of the players. Combo attacks allows for more aesthetics but makes the learning curve higher.
The second mechanic you have is 2D movement. Make sure that you have items that enhance this mechanic as well. I remember you saying that this is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. Keep in mind they too have ways of both enhancing and disrupting movement with everything from potions of expeditious retreat to tangle foot bags.
Dynamics
The easiest way to help balance out the dynamics of the game are to give your opponents and the players access to similar abilities. For instance if the players have a way to stop enemy movement, then the enemies should have a way slow the players.
You had mentioned that you wanted to have a party based game but were considering making this a single player game. The best way to have the best of both worlds is to have the player select their character from your selection of characters and then have the computer select 3 other characters that will play with the character, similar to Guildwars. This will allow you to make the game more challenging to the player and still have the feel of dungeon crawling with a group.
Aesthetics
There are four types of fun that you are appealing to in this: Fantasy, Challenge, Discover, and Expression. To appeal to fantasy, going for the medieval look is good choice. It is easy to make stereotypes out of the genre, such as the wizard, fighter, thief, priest and what not. You already recognize that the game needs to have more balance both in enemy and player abilities.
The players are going to be looking for someway to enhance they character. By giving someway to internally enhancing their characters (skill trees or ability selection) and power ups. By having a diverse set of power ups and character enhancement players can enjoy playing the game in multiple iterations with different outcomes and strategies for each character, power ups, and ability selection.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Week Eight 3RD CLOUD Project Update
Much has happened over the past week.
Game Menus:
I have finished drafting up possible design options for the menus of 3rd CLOUD. I was thinking that as the player advances through the game, the menu look and feel should change. Here are the three design descriptions that I have come up with:
1st Cloud: The menu should look and feel light and happy. The farmers boy is going on a new and different experience and the menu should help support this. Because of this, the menu will look like rolling green empty hills. In the menu itself, a branch with leaves and berries are there to represent the growth of the character.
2nd Cloud: This menu should represent business as this is what the second cloud represents. The menus I believe should reflect the profession that the player picked. With this, I imagine the menus to be rolling blue hills with some development on them. Also, the branch with berries if replaced by symbols that represent the players profession (ie: swords and shields for the fighter).
3rd Cloud: The menu for the 3rd cloud is meant to represent the state of the cloud itself, which is full of death, decay and possibly demons. Because of this, The rolling hills will now be black with tombstones on them. The symbols of the characters profession will be replaced with a tombstone and a skull.
As far as navigation, I like how RPG Maker utilizes it's menus. Given that we have four weeks left for our project, I believe that the default menu navigation is fine.
Cloud Mapping:
I have created a basic map of all three clouds. They are still in a rough format and needs to be approved by the team. In our next meeting I am hoping to finalize the map of the first cloud.
Project Management:
Drew has requested that I become the project manager of 3rd CLOUD. He is a much better programmer than I and I am more proficient at documentation and thus our roles have been switched.
Weekly Meeting Time:
Tuesdays meetings will go from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM. Last week we met in the games room of the Library.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I am hoping to have the map of the first, second, and third cloud finished. I also hope to have the menus finalized. I also hope to have the story for the first cloud to be completely finished.
Game Menus:
I have finished drafting up possible design options for the menus of 3rd CLOUD. I was thinking that as the player advances through the game, the menu look and feel should change. Here are the three design descriptions that I have come up with:
1st Cloud: The menu should look and feel light and happy. The farmers boy is going on a new and different experience and the menu should help support this. Because of this, the menu will look like rolling green empty hills. In the menu itself, a branch with leaves and berries are there to represent the growth of the character.
2nd Cloud: This menu should represent business as this is what the second cloud represents. The menus I believe should reflect the profession that the player picked. With this, I imagine the menus to be rolling blue hills with some development on them. Also, the branch with berries if replaced by symbols that represent the players profession (ie: swords and shields for the fighter).
3rd Cloud: The menu for the 3rd cloud is meant to represent the state of the cloud itself, which is full of death, decay and possibly demons. Because of this, The rolling hills will now be black with tombstones on them. The symbols of the characters profession will be replaced with a tombstone and a skull.
As far as navigation, I like how RPG Maker utilizes it's menus. Given that we have four weeks left for our project, I believe that the default menu navigation is fine.
Cloud Mapping:
I have created a basic map of all three clouds. They are still in a rough format and needs to be approved by the team. In our next meeting I am hoping to finalize the map of the first cloud.
Project Management:
Drew has requested that I become the project manager of 3rd CLOUD. He is a much better programmer than I and I am more proficient at documentation and thus our roles have been switched.
Weekly Meeting Time:
Tuesdays meetings will go from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM. Last week we met in the games room of the Library.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I am hoping to have the map of the first, second, and third cloud finished. I also hope to have the menus finalized. I also hope to have the story for the first cloud to be completely finished.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Week Seven 3RD CLOUD Project Update
Much has happened over the past few weeks. 3RD CLOUD is now snowballing towards completion.
Paper Prototype Testing:
Drew and I were able to test the paper prototype on three individuals. We tried using the facilities supplied to us (use of a one way mirror, lots of open space); however, the one way mirror did not allow us to hear the user being tested. We also did not make use of the open space provided because our prototype was made in RPG maker and required a digital interface: my laptop.
If the digital prototype had failed, I had prepared a paper and pencil Role Playing Alternative using the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 system. It would follow the same story, relatively the same combat system, and involve the same characters.
Paper Prototype Documentation:
I was in charge of documenting the experience of the user. I had the user fill out an eleven question survey about their experience with RPGs, their game experience in 3RD CLOUD and their thoughts and suggestions after they played our prototype.
The general consensus was that the game was not very intuitive on its own. Players were unsure where they should go and what to do unless myself or Drew began to guide them at some points. It was suggested that we have some kind of tutorial in the game but I think this is a great point for anyone in our team with graphical design experience to create a users manual.
Another problem we encountered was with interactivity. Players seemed to want to click everything that was around the room: coats, pictures, barrels, etc. They expected a result of some sorts even if a simple message popped up and said "this is a barrel." To solve this requires more programming than what we first expected but I am assured that the extra work would not be to strenuous.
Weekly Meeting Time:
We have finally hammered out a time in which to meet on a regular and scheduled basis for the team. We met last week on Tuesday at 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM. We found that this schedule worked for everyone in the team; however, I have meetings that start at 3:00 PM on Tuesdays. Because of this, Tuesdays meetings will go from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I am hoping to have a map of the first cloud completed along with the menu and player navigation through all the menus, both for combat and out of combat. I will also be doing any documentation that will be required over the next week.
Paper Prototype Testing:
Drew and I were able to test the paper prototype on three individuals. We tried using the facilities supplied to us (use of a one way mirror, lots of open space); however, the one way mirror did not allow us to hear the user being tested. We also did not make use of the open space provided because our prototype was made in RPG maker and required a digital interface: my laptop.
If the digital prototype had failed, I had prepared a paper and pencil Role Playing Alternative using the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 system. It would follow the same story, relatively the same combat system, and involve the same characters.
Paper Prototype Documentation:
I was in charge of documenting the experience of the user. I had the user fill out an eleven question survey about their experience with RPGs, their game experience in 3RD CLOUD and their thoughts and suggestions after they played our prototype.
The general consensus was that the game was not very intuitive on its own. Players were unsure where they should go and what to do unless myself or Drew began to guide them at some points. It was suggested that we have some kind of tutorial in the game but I think this is a great point for anyone in our team with graphical design experience to create a users manual.
Another problem we encountered was with interactivity. Players seemed to want to click everything that was around the room: coats, pictures, barrels, etc. They expected a result of some sorts even if a simple message popped up and said "this is a barrel." To solve this requires more programming than what we first expected but I am assured that the extra work would not be to strenuous.
Weekly Meeting Time:
We have finally hammered out a time in which to meet on a regular and scheduled basis for the team. We met last week on Tuesday at 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM. We found that this schedule worked for everyone in the team; however, I have meetings that start at 3:00 PM on Tuesdays. Because of this, Tuesdays meetings will go from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM.
Next Weeks Objectives:
For next week, I am hoping to have a map of the first cloud completed along with the menu and player navigation through all the menus, both for combat and out of combat. I will also be doing any documentation that will be required over the next week.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
A New Challenge Approaches: THIRD CLOUD
My idea was not chosen as one of the top for game ideas in my section. Actually, it wasn’t even in the top six. That is alright. I decided that for the team I am going to belong to, I want to pick the one that had the best story to it. That is why I am involved with project Third Cloud.
It is an RPG similar to my own where an unlikely individual must band together with strangers to free the three clouds of evil. It takes place on a world suspended in the air on platforms entirely made of clouds. Each cloud has a social status, upper at the top cloud and lower on the bottom, and traveling between the clouds is restricted by each clouds Ruler.
A simple peasant is farming one day when he comes across a strange artifact that fell from the third cloud. He takes this artifact to the village shaman who stresses its importance but does not take it. He asks you to take it to the local Lord. On your way there, you are robbed by bandits who take the item away from you. When you reach the lord he urges you to get it back. And so it begins…
REAPER Game Vision
For more details about my ideas for the game, please refer to the content below.
Overview and Objective:
Reaper is an interactive RPG meant to immerse you into the shoes of a peasant who has to rise up, free the land of evil and rise up to meet his true destiny.
With this game, I am hoping to revive the RPGs of the mid 1990’s where heros are made from those whose destiny demand it.
User Description:
My prime target audience are the narrative driven RPG goers. Such individuals are usually fans of other RPGs such as Never Winter Nights and Baulder’s Gate and table top RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons and GURPS. This game is also meant to minimalists (you are fighting as a peasant after all) and to those that are into the story more than into power gaming.
Prototype:
I was able to prototype my story. I had six users take a survey a while reading my story. The results were encouraging. The results are summarized in the previous post.
Features and Functionalities:
If it is possible, I want to make this game from the first person point of view, like in Half-life. I am hoping this will maximize my users immersive experience. The best engine for this that I can think of is the Halflife 2 engine. With the engine, it places us in the first person perspective and gives us a 3D environment to wander around in. When the player needs to rescue NPCs, Halflife 2 makes it easy for them to follow. Plus it makes it simpler to make a single or multiplayer application.
Justification:
The reason I want to use the Halflife 2 engine is for one reason only: immersion. I want the user to stop thinking about the real world and put themselves in the place of the heroic peasant. The perspective, graphics range and immersive experience of this story is perfect for the Halflife 2 engine.
User Testing:
The individuals I tested with my survey I have played Dungeons and Dragons with before. Some are power gamers, some are munchkins, but most of all, they all enjoy story. With these individuals, they told me they liked being able to do as they with in an adventure and did not like straightforward tactics (such as simply press A to attack). They also tend to be curious and like to explore around everywhere.
Short Comings:
There are several problems associated with Reaper. The first is that the narrative specific market is very niche oriented. It is usually the more hard core narrative goers that prefer this genre of game.
The story also had a few problems. As said before, only 50% of the users liked the story. The other half thought it was only decent.
One problem with the Halflife 2 engine is that I believe it is difficult to make sprites work in party with you. Because of this, the hero of Reaper may have to do his questing alone.
Finally, one of the biggest problems is in getting people to follow the story line without putting in huge game barriers (such as making them always walk on a single path). This not only restricts the market even more but it takes away from letting people be curious to explore the space they are in.
Expansion Ideas:
The most logical idea for expansion for this game is to make it a multiplayer game. After all, having one peasant is a hero is not nearly as cool as a village defending their town from an invasion.
If I can too, I want to expand on the story and character development. Even during the testing process, the story was rather vague and did need some work.
Other ideas I have had for expanding is fighting some kind of unique super boss or even when winning the game, there can be alternate endings.
Next Step:
The biggest step is to further develop the story or even redevelop the story so that it can be more immersive. Also, I will need to soon start on the prototype development process such as designing and building weapons, equipment, sound, scenes, and sprites. Finally after the demo is finished or even partially finished, I can do user testing.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Game Idea: REAPER
I have had a few ideas floating in my head about what I wanted to do for my game concept. I know that for certain I wanted something that had a strong narrative and was highly immersive. After all, one of my main passions is Dungeons and Dragons. It is because of this that I have chosen to do the following:
One of the questions I had asked that I was most intrigued about was "after your encounter with the goblins, if you heard screaming from in the house, what would you do?" All answered with "investigate."
The major flaw with this game concept is that it would only appeal to a very specific kind of gamer, the strictly Role Player. As rare as it is to find, I know a market exists for it. However, I feel this may have to develop into a personal project rather than an academic project.
REAPER
Hagoroth cleansed the lands of evil during the orc invasions. Gamari purged evil magic from the cities by starting the Serenity Revolution. You are their child. All grown up, you had decided to leave the lavish and wealth that was brought to your family and leave the thrill of adventuring to start a life as a simple common farmer. Having started a family of your own, you have settled into the Kiltoa province, one of the provinces your father cleansed. The land has been at peace for three and a half decades.
Having finished a long day of harvesting, you were just about to fall asleep as a rattling in the tool shed woke you up…
This is the story I thought of for my story. Similar to Dungeon Siege, it had a story of the humbled unlikely hero rising to his or her true destiny. I was able to test this story with six gamers and rpg fans. Some either really liked the story or thought it was alright. I decided to further develop it and test more of the plot I had developed.You decide to go and investigate. You grab a lantern and a club to take with you. Rats from time to time have been known to eat and chew on things they are not suppose to.
Most of the users expected to encounter trouble while one particular individual expected to find child crying with a very well developed narrative regarding the child rather than the survival story I had originally intended.
One of the questions I had asked that I was most intrigued about was "after your encounter with the goblins, if you heard screaming from in the house, what would you do?" All answered with "investigate."
The major flaw with this game concept is that it would only appeal to a very specific kind of gamer, the strictly Role Player. As rare as it is to find, I know a market exists for it. However, I feel this may have to develop into a personal project rather than an academic project.
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