Exercises:

 5.1: Objects and Properties (p128)

Connect Four

• yellow checkers:
  • This one of the identification colors for the either player to connect 4 of this yellow checkers in a row while preventing your opponent doing the same.
  • They are stackable on top of each other.
• red checkers
  • Same as yellow checkers, this is the identification color and this can be stackable. 
• Checker board
  • 7 column x 6 rows.
  • This board allows for the players to place their checkers and limit the players choice

 5.2: Behaviors (p129)

• red & yellow checkers: moves vertically down until hits the ground or other block of another checkers. The movement is depend on the gravity and the player cannot change the position once they decided. 
• checker board: unlike other board games, this board stands vertically and has a hole in the middle for the players to place their checkers in.

 5.3: Relationships (p131)

• Red Checkers and Yellow checkers = Their relationship is depend on their positions where the player’s advantage is the opponent’s disadvantage, this game is a zeros game. 
• Board and Checkers = The board allows the players place their checkers and come up with the strategies.

5.4: System Dynamics (p137)

1. Instead of placing the checkers vertically, place the checkers from side (there will be a hole on the side, not on the top.) = this limit the placement choices that once the first row is completed, other rows can be placed. This slows down the game but players should come up with an intricate strategies to win.
2. Increase the number of players = This is still playable where players are stacking the checkers really fast but mathematically it became difficult to win the game.
3. change the size of the checker board to 5 x 5 = the 3 players and a small space make this game is impossible to win. It is impossible to place the checkers on the board to make the 4 dots.

6.2: Game Deconstruction 

formal: Connect Four is a 2 player game that the first player who makes the a row of 4 dots wins. There are no specific rules to play because there are a lot of restriction follows to the players due to the nature of the board, however, players can come up with the strategies to win. Players are limited to place the dots on top other dots or the base, it is impossible to place the dots in the middle of the board. The game requires mathematical and problem  solving skills to win, however, since this is a fast paced game and there are limited strategies, it is easy to learn.

dramatic: This game can only be dramatic if there is a fight between 2 opponents. 

dynamics: The dynamics comes from the different strategies that players implemented in this game.  

2.7: Premise (p43)

• Beat Saber - You are in the arbitrary world cutting the blocks according to the rhythms of the music with a saber.
• Minecraft - Building the world as you wish with the cubes. Also able to create a world or game play.
• The Witcher - In the fantasy world where witchers (genetically mutated humans) undergo years of special training and are imbued with supernatural abilities. You can hunt and slay dangerous monsters that terrorize the land.
• Over Watch - It is a highly stylized team based shooter. Every match is an intense multiplayer fights between various characters that players could choose.

2.8: Story (p44) 

Games that heavily embodies a story evoke the emotional feelings that grasps to continue the play. The stories creates the character developments and this provides the sympathy or attraction to the main protagonist, especially if the game is dependent on the character building that gets to choose which characteristics that I can make. As I engage on the game, I become a main character while I am concentrating. I feel emotionally attached to the character that if some consequences happened to the character, I feel the same emotion. 

4.1: Making Checkers Dramatic (p97)

Dramatic value: Each checkers are kangaroos that likes to expose their high jump skills by jumping over other kangaroos. There are a white kangaroo and black kangaroo tribes to figure out which tribe is the best jumpers.

The first and definite element that is changed is the way of using the metaphor. Players are calling the defeating the enemy as the hopping over the kangaroo. This small change of premise changes the mood of the play to be more delightful. Since it is best to show off the jumping skills, players seems to try consecutive jumps. This increases the challenge of the game as well as the concentration of the players.

Researches:

Super Mario 3 by Shiguru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka

Super Mario 3 is a Multiplayer, side scrolling 2D platformer game. This has simple story line where King Koopa kidnaps Princess and taken over all seven kingdoms in the mushroom world. Mario Brothers have to rescue Princess and the kingdoms. This is similar to the first Super Mario Bros., but this introduces new abilities of fighting and sliding. Also, allowed to pick up and throw special blocks and climb the vines. Players have to complete 7 worlds, that embodies different theme, in order to enter the last level. Each Level has different bosses.

The Super Mario Series are designed in such a way that players explore the mechanics of the game without any tutorials in order to play through the advanced levels. This shows a large number of thoughts and decisions went into adjusting the player experience in the beginning. Designers incorporated the affordances on obstacles to create gradual learning curves. This informs us to eliminate the humdrum tutorials to build up a positive interaction to the players. In future game making, I should keep in mind these principles to guide the design processes to elevate the game to the next level.

Castlevania (NES)

Castlevania is a typical 2D platformer in which the player play as Simon Belmont,  who is a descendant of the Belmont clan. The game starts in the Castlevania, Dracula's castle, to fight Draculas. The main weapon is a whip called vampire killer and health are powered by the hearts by destroying candles and killing monsters. The levels are divided into six blocks of three stages. Each stages has the timer, therefore players have to complete the game before time runs out. There are various obstacles of spiked ceilings, enemies and bosses. There are various weapons but only allowed to carry one at the time, these are lost if the player loses a life. 

Castlevania achieved to manage to have the cohesive theme through soundtrack, stories, visuals and metaphors. Also achieved to create the graduate learning curves without the tutorials to instruct the players. 

Reading Responses:

GDW Chapter 4: Working with Dramatic Elements (pg. 97 - 102)

In this chapter, I find the similarities between games and the theater. Both of them plays with some kind of emotion that evokes the the pleasure of relieving stress while audiences are immersed in the moment. Also, to create an interesting game or theater, they should set the target audience first to find the appropriate challenges/script.

Other than those similarities, I was amused by Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow. I never thought that the balance between the frustration and boredom make the experience interesting. Before this reading, I thought what ‘interesting’ means something new, pleasant, or good stories. In any games, there is an intricate balance between the challenges and satisfaction that games are not hard but also not boring form the rising learning curves. 

GDW Chapter 8: Digital Prototyping (pg. 235 - 269)

It is interesting to know that there are 4 different types of digital prototyping such as game mechanics, kinesthetics, technology, and aesthetics. When I think of the prototype, I only thought of the technology part to find the problem in the coding or kinesthetics of interface experiences.

GDW chapter 8: Sidebar: Using Software Prototypes in Game Design by Nik Mikros (pg. 242-245)

While I make the digital prototypes, I want to write an accomplished codes that I want to use in my final product but from Mikros, I learned that these prototype is a tool to help the design not a final product. It was hard to let go off the all codes because I am not a coder but it is necessary to write and test the digital prototype quickly to find the problems and solve them.

GDW Chapter 8: Sidebar: Prototyping for Game Feel by Steve Swink (pg. 246 - 248)

I agree to Swink that the feel of the game is from inputs, responses, visuals, sounds, metaphors and rules. If all those elements follows one another, it creates a coherent theme and feelings. To create a feel that you want, there should be a lot of iterations and small delicate changes to fit the right feeling.

Chapter 8: Digital Prototyping: Effective interface design(pg. 258-260)

In Chapter 8, Fullerton mentions about the design interface that enhances the understanding of the purposes. Especially in the game, it is important to give a clear feedback for every action that players take. When I was playing Halo, I loved the feedbacks from the alien gun, Type-33 Guided Munition Launcher, that the control vibrates every shot and when it is a cooling time, the character shows that recharging of the alien gun. The sound of the gun matches the theme of space and alien which gave me a pleasant to play. Fullerton also said the consistency is important. Consistency in terms of features on the same place to decrease the confusion. When I was making the game for the first time, I placed the time on different spots for different scenes and this created the huge confusions for my play testers. I really liked this chapter because I learned how to apply avoid the uncertain features and add appropriate interfaces. 

Week 6:

Exercises :

• 4.6: Premise (p107) :

Witcher 3

The setting is mostly around the Northern Kingdom where The Wild Hunt Begins the Empire of Nilfgaard has invaded the Northern Kingdoms from the south. Unlike Witcher 1 and 2, Witcher 3 is mostly set in the center of the conflict. You play as Geralt, which is a Witcher, a monster hunter, fearsome warriors who are skilled in combat, tracking, magic and more. He receives the letter from his lover, Yennerger of Vengerberg and sets off on a quest to find her. 

Gris:

Gris, the main character, wakes up and attempts to sing out but becomes choked up and the statue’s hand crumble, dropping her to the colorless earth. She explores and discovers strange structures that were powered by mysterious points of light resembling stars. She collects powers from it and creates a path to the heavens.

The Binding of Isaac:

Isaac’s mother receives a message from God demanding the life of her son as proof of her faith, and Isaac flees into the monster-filled basement of their home where he must fight to survive. 

Limbo:

A boy explores dangerous environments, a forest on the “edge of hell” and traps his enemy, giant Spider who tries to kill him as he searches for his sister. 

Spelunky

A spelunker who explores a series of caves while collecting treasure saving damsels, fighting enemies and dodging traps. 

• 4.7: Game Characters (p113):

Chloe (Life is Strange)

She is a familiar fictional character, who faces the consequences when she met her old friend and her friend's personality changed since last Chole saw her. Within this common setting, she is a vibrant presence, who punches right through issues with self-esteem. That personal connection makes the players protect her. Her typical teenager characteristics actually made her easily distinctive to other characters.

Link(The Legend of Zelda):

The developer, Miyamoto said this game is based on his childhood memories of exploring the forests and caves that surround the Japanese city of Kyoto. As a result, Link is the character that facilitated the feeling of childhood. This character is compelling because he is ready to confront the challenge of life ahead of him. 

Master Chief (Halo, 2001):

He is a cybernetically-enhanced supersoldier fighting to save the human race from the marauding Covenant. He is a man of few words, however, this enhances his characteristics of powerful, bold and fearless. Actually Master Chief lets his battle rifle speaks for him. The compelling part of his appearances is metal armor that makes him powerful. When Master Chief crashes the Covenant’s head, we could experience as a character, how strong he is. 

• 4.8: Story (p113)

Katana Zero is a 2D action platform video game developed by Askiisoft. Players take on the role of Zero, Who is the protagonist and amnesiac samurai assassin tasked with killing anyone he’s told to kill. The narrative is a perspective of Zero’s present, however, he lost his memory, therefore, the story is non-linear. Players look at the fragmented pieces of his dream or illusion to figure out his past and his antagonists who seem to know him well. I think Katana Zero incorporates objectives that successfully meld with a story because during the gameplay we know about the drug that Zero takes, Chronos, which provides the limited recognition allowing drug users to slow their perception of time and rewind time to a certain point. Therefore in the gameplay, Zero never fails the mission and the mechanic of the let the players practice certain skills. However, it gives the side effect of vivid hallucinations. More you play the game, the main character does not trust the psychiatrist, who gives the Chrono and orders, and started to reveal the truth. These are done through meeting and talking to bosses of each level. Even though most of the characters, Zero’s past, and Zero’s true power are unknown, the game foreshadowed the next game in an interesting way that players look forward to playing. 

Reading :

• GDW Chapter 11: Fun and Accessibility, Is Your Game Fun? (p341—346)

Chapter 11: Fun and Accessibility is about the fundamental and core importance of the game,” Is it fun?” Besides the perfect levels of designs, environments, objectives and etc, the game can still become uninteresting and unappealing to players. However, as Fullerton said, fun is a very subjective matter. Especially games, it needs full attention and participation of players in order to progress to the next level or stage. The best way to know your game is fun is to ask players. However, it is not clear for playtesters to know specific elements you are missing. Therefore when you playtest, specify the questions to tackle which element of ‘fun’ is lacking. 

In any game Challenge is a good way of tuning to the player's skills. The game shouldn’t be too difficult at the beginning but should provide the challenge at the end of the accomplishment. One interesting point Fullerton talked about was, “Stretching Personal Limits.” I thought all games have the same goals for all players but when players know they cannot win they find their subgoals to feel the accomplishment. Personally, I like collection and construction types of challenges where you collect rare items and build something to invest in the game. This time-consuming gameplay actually emerges me into the game.

Research :

• Hollow Knight (Switch) by Team Cherry

Hollow Knight is an action-adventure 2D platform developed and published by Team Cherry. The player plays as the protagonist, Knight who explores the underground ancient insect Kingdom of Hallownest. There are various movements and types of attacks. Boss enemies are dispersed in the game that requires to defeat in order to progress further. The overall game is dark to suit the underground theme and characters are designed in insect to cohesively connect the environment. Soundtracks create an atmosphere of heavy and adventurous feeling throughout the gameplay. The design of the characters is stylized in a delightful way for players to tolerate insect design.