Course Reflection

Course Reflection

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Well, the semester is nearly over and I'd like to take this time to look back and reflect. Through this class I gained a deeper understanding of games. I no longer view games from just the perspective of a player but now also the perspective of a designer. I had no idea that there were such things as game mechanics or frameworks (MDA) for how to approach game design. I have a much deeper appreciation for game designers and not just game developers. Throughout the course I enjoyed the TED talks that we watched. I particularly liked Jane McGonigal's talk on the benefits of gaming and how playing games can actually be healing.

Of everything learned, creating a game with Game Maker was the most interesting. Having no prior experience using Game Maker, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how easy it was to create a simple game. I believe that all of the material that was presented in class is connected. One primary example of this is learning about game mechanics and being able to see them at work in an actual game. Overall CS 108 delivered on its objective -- we read about games, wrote about games, designed games, and played games.

Final Project

Final Project: Bomb Squad

Description: Bomb Squad’s ten minutes out, but this thing’s gonna blow long before they arrive. Looks like they’re gonna have to talk you through this one. Good luck.

Game Objects: A large bomb with several wires takes up the majority of the screen. Square tiles indicating which key to press will appear in the center of the screen (like a HUD).

Sounds: A repeating tick-tock sound will play for the duration of the game. If the player loses, an explosion sound will be played. If the player wins, a “disarm” sound will be played.

Controls: Press the arrow keys in the order that they were displayed.

Game Flow: There’s only one window to this game and it consists of a black/gray background with a large bomb filling most of the window. A series of keys will be presented one after the other in the center of the screen. After the whole series has been displayed, the player must press the keys on the keyboard in the order that they were shown. There will be a finite number of rounds. The number of keys in the series will increase after every few rounds. If a wrong key is pressed, the bomb explodes immediately and the game is over. If after beta testing the game is too easy, perhaps some rounds will feature “flipped controls” — the player must press the opposite key of what was shown in the series.

Levels: There is one level that gets more and more challenging and the game progresses.

Ingress

Ingress

Prior to this class I had heard of Ingress but had never played. The game sounded interesting; I liked the idea of a game whose map is the real world. I thought that it would add an exciting element to the game by making it feel more "real". After playing for the first time on Wednesday, I can say that my initial suspicions were correct. Ingress is actually pretty fun! Using GPS as a mechanic is a game changer (pun intended). By incorporating your actual location and the physical limitation of where you can actually go it closes the gap between reality and virtual reality. It's exciting to feel like you're actually living in the game. For me, playing with others is what really made the game fun. I don't think I'd enjoy the game nearly as much if I were walking around hacking portals by myself. In a way, Ingress can actually be a great social platform. Overall I enjoyed playing the game and would actually like to continue playing (so long as I have friends that will continue to play alongside of me). I just learned that the creator of Ingress, Niantic, is also the one behind Pokemon Go. Ingress has pioneered a way into a new era of gaming that bridges the gap between reality and virtual reality. Ingress is a solid game and a great first attempt at an augmented-reality game for Niantic. I'm excited and hopeful that Pokemon Go is an even bigger success.

Video Game Prototype

Recycler: Video Game Prototype

Description

In this game you control an eco-friendly recycle bin navigating over a landfill of garbage and recyclable materials. You encounter an increasing amount of garbage and recyclables. The goal is to collect as many recyclables as you can to save the planet.

Controls

Use the Up, Down, Left, and Right arrow keys to move Binman around the screen.

Objective

Your objective is to collect as many recyclables (glass bottles, plastic bottle, paper bags, and cans) as possible while avoiding garbage (apple cores, bananas, diapers, and trash bags). You are given five lives and will lose a life each time you pick up a piece of garbage. The game ends when you run out of lives. The speed and spawn rate of the items will gradually increase as the game progresses (up to a certain point).

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The game is pretty much completed and functions as expected. The only known issue is that garbage/recyclable objects sometimes spawn in a position where they are partly off of the screen or on top of another object. After the feedback we received from the alpha, we made the icons bigger so that they would be more easily identifiable. We also made it so that the horizontal speed of the objects would gradually increase as the game went on to make it a bit more challenging. We decided to use lives instead of a countdown timer to control how long the game would last. We think that with all of the changes we've made the game is now complete.

Playable Prototype

Recycler

Playable Prototype

Our game, Recycler, is being designed by Shivani Aurora and programmed by me. Recycler is a side scrolling game where the player controls a recycle bin navigating a landfill where the goal is to collect as many recyclables as possible. Our current prototype has the designs and basic functionality completed. As of now, the player can move the recycle bin in all directions (up, down, left, and right), increase their score by collecting recyclables, and lose the game by collecting a non-recyclable item. We have yet to implement different point values for each recyclable, varying horizontal speeds and occurrence rates for all items, and negative effects of collecting a non-recyclable item (the plan is that each non-recyclable item decreases the score by a certain amount rather than causing the game to end immediately, which is how it’s currently implemented in this prototype). Our main question is, should the game have a time limit where collecting a recyclable item increases the score by a certain amount and collecting a non-recyclable item decreases the score by a certain amount and the objective is to get the highest score possible by the end of the time limit? Or, should there be an unlimited amount of time where collecting a recyclable item increases the score by a certain amount whereas collecting a non-recyclable item results in a game over? Keep in mind that in the next iteration, non-recyclable items will have varying horizontal speeds and may oscillate around 10px vertically, making the collection of a non-recyclable item much more likely.

Download Recycler

Video Game Lab

The three games that I played were Prismic Shift, Don’t Shit Your Pants, and QWOP. Prismic Shift is an arcade game that was played on the arcade cabinet. It was well built and fun to play (especially because of co-op). Being able to play Prismic Shift on the arcade cabinet as opposed to with an emulator greatly improves the experience. Not only is it easier to maneuver by using a joystick but it is also a more immersive experience.

The next game I played was Don’t Shit Your Pants. Don’t Shit Your Pants is an interesting game. It has no rules or instructions other than “don’t shit your pants.” The game doesn’t seem to match any of the mechanics listed on BoardGameGeek, but I would argue that it does have a mechanic: trial and error. You basically just have to try different commands until you reach the object of shitting somewhere other than your pants.

The last game I played was QWOP. QWOP is a simple yet very difficult game to play. The objective is simple: run the race. The controls, however, are anything but. QWOP is very similar to Don’t Shit Your Pants in that both games do not have an explicit set of rules or instructions and have a “trial and error” mechanic. The whole point of the game is figuring out how to play the game. It’s very difficult but at the same time quite amusing and hysterical to watch the runner contort in unnatural ways.

My partner and I both played QWOP. Playing the game yourself is challenging, amusing, and frustrating. However, watching someone else play takes away the challenge and frustration. It’s far more amusing to watch someone else try and fail than to fail yourself.

Iterative Design

Apotheosis

Overview

Apotheosis is a game based on the “roll/spin and move” and “set collection” game mechanics. Players compete against each other to be the first to collect one of each type of resource either by visiting each continent or stealing from the other player. Players take turns either rolling a die to determine which continent they will end up on (and thus which resource they will collect) or challenging the other player to a battle in which the victor can steal one of the loser’s resources.

Play Log

The first iteration of Apotheosis had much different rules than the final version. Originally the only way to collect all of the resources and win the game was by visiting each continent. My partner and I alternated turns where we’d roll a die which corresponded to the continent that we would visit and the resource that would be collected. After six or seven turns of this we realized that the game was horribly boring and needed something to make it more engaging and exciting.

In an effort to make Apotheosis more fun, the second iteration introduced a player vs player aspect. Players could now either collect a resource or a “power-up” from the continent that they visited. Each continent corresponded to a specific resource and power-up. Players could either collect a resource or increase their stats so that they could battle the other player and hopefully steal their resources. I took my first turn and decided to increase my attack. My partner took his turn and also increased his attack. I then challenged my partner to a battle and awaited for him to complete his next turn. My partner increased his defense and met me inside the battle square. We had a fairly complex system for calculating who would go first and how damage would be calculated. As we played a couple of rounds of the battle it quickly became evident that the whole system was flawed and whoever was lucky enough to go first would always win. The battle system became far too complicated when trying to factor in player stats and how damage would be calculated.

The third and final iteration of the game addressed the overly complicated battle system that was introduced in the second iteration. I decided to abandon the player stats and power-ups in favor of a much simpler, luck-based battle system. I also added the following rule: in order to challenge someone to a battle, both players must have at least one resource in their possession. In the battle, both players roll three dice each and whoever has the highest total wins. The winner gets to steal any one resource from the other. Playing through this version of the game was actually fun enjoyable. My opponent and I each took a few turns where we collected resourced before I finally decided to challenge my opponent to a battle. We each rolled our three dice — and I lost. I was down to two resources and my opponent had four. My opponent only needed an ice and a metal to win. I had in my possession a metal and a fire, so my opponent decided to challenge me to a battle. He won and stole my fire. Rather than press my luck at another battle, I decided to collect a resource by visiting a continent. Incredibly, my opponent decided to do the same and was lucky enough to land on Metallic Mountain where he was able to collect his metal and win the game.

Board Games & Session Reports

The board games that I played in class were Tsuro and Wits & Wagers. I had never played either before and while I enjoyed both of them I found Wits & Wagers to be quite a bit more fun than Tsuro. In this post I will be giving a session report of Tsuro.

Tsuro Session Report

Players: Danny, Kenton, Linda, Shivani, Jonathan (myself)

The game begins by each of us selecting a token and picking up three random tiles. Each of us placed our tokens pretty far away from each other to give us the best chance of survival.

Kenton goes first and places a tile down on the board and advances his piece.

Linda goes next and places a tile down far enough from Kenton that there are no foreseeable issues.

Shivani places her first tile on the board somewhat near where Linda started, but not close enough to signal impending doom.

Danny’s up next and places a tile that leads him straight across to the next square.

Being that I was the last to go, I had the advantage of seeing where everyone else was and might be headed. I decided to place a tile down that would hopefully keep me well away from everyone else.

We’re back to Kenton who places a tile that moves him forward and to the left.

Linda places a tile that changes her course.

Shivani also places a tile that changes her direction, now on a potential collision-course with Linda.

Danny places a tile which also changes his direction but directs him away from the others but right at me.

Trying my best to stay away from everyone else, I placed a tile that led me straight, in parallel to the chaos that was about to ensue in the center of the board.

Eventually Linda and Shivani collided which took them both out of the game. Shortly after, Kenton was led off of the board and was out of the game, leaving just Danny and myself. That same round, Danny also found himself led off of the board, leaving me as victor.

Adopted Arcade Game

Adopted Arcade Game: Flying Shark

The classic arcade game that I decide to "adopt" and play was Flying Shark. It was released in 1987 by Toaplan / Taito Corporation and is classified as a vertical scrolling shooter game. My experience playing the game was a bit frustrating. Maybe I am just completely inept at playing arcade games, but I found Flying Shark to be surprisingly difficult. There seemed to be no progression of difficulty; as soon as the game started it seemed to have been on "hard mode." Playing this game via an emulator made the experience a lot worse. There were no clear instructions on which keys mapped to which functions. With that in mind, I do believe that this game was probably a lot of fun when it was played on the original hardware where all buttons clearly mapped to their respective functions. Furthermore I would imagine that the game was a lot less difficult when played on the original hardware as the player would have all of the functionality available to them. From the screenshots it appears as if the plane you are flying should be able to shoot. I was not able to shoot because I could not figure out which button mapped to shooting. Had I been able to play this on the original hardware and had the ability to not only move evasively but also attack I believe it would have been far less difficult and much more enjoyable.