Last Week!!

So this is the last week of school and it has been a busy one. I completed all assignments, presented my final project and handed everything in. Now I have summer to look forward to and what I mean by that is more work in better weather. I will continue to model and improve on the aspects I would like to get a job in.

I would also like to read the rest of the game design book so I can have all the knowledge and understanding of what it takes to create a good game. I have many ideas but in order to make them into a physical thing I first need to go through the process to determine whether it is a game someone could enjoy. Also I need to see if it plausible to create. This is something I learned from working within a group to create a game. Any idea can be great but if it is not plausible you should not invest your time into it.

During the summer I would like to come up with different stories, models and balancing concepts so I can be ready to bring something to the table for next year. Finding a group that has the potential to create the idea is essential and if the idea needs to be reduced I will have no problems doing so.

I have started playing Jak and Daxter an older Playstation game they remade for the ps3. It is one of my favourite games. It has a very good story, the game play is very smooth. The character is very balanced, as he gains levels with new fighting abilities. Throughout the game the enemies become harder, with more health and more intelligence. Every so often there is a boss battle where the player must defeat a higher leveled monster. There is also a sidekick that follows Jak around, Daxter is a small creature that adds a comic relief to the game.

Jak and Daxter Cover

The only thing I would change in the game is adding a network aspect to it. Allow players to play together in defeating bosses and help each other collect secret items and things like that.

The creators gave the game a light feel, with bright colours and a comedic script. However there are some parts of the game that are darker and this shows levels within the game. The darker areas describe where more evil monsters live and the brighter areas show where weaker monsters are and also where other characters in the game live.

Jak walking through a bright level

Overall the game is really fun and I believe if someone would want to get into a good RPG I would recommend to pick up Jak and Daxter.

Making Models

During the course of the week I have created a high polygon count model. It is a plant monster that could be used in a fictional game. The model is used for my demo reel I would like to distribute to companies I would like to be hired by.

The reason I created this plant is for a game idea that I have thought of. It is a RPG where a character is playing a jungle game and then gets sucked into his tv and into the game. The back story of the main character is that he is a teenager in high school that no one likes. He gets bullied all the time and the only escape is the video he plays every day.

Once the main character is transported into the game he turns into a character that is very bland and is made up of cardboard pieces. As the game progresses parts of his cardboard suit breaks off and he "comes out of the box" so to speak and realizes he needs to stand up to the bullies and talk people to create friendships in real life.

The plant monster is a boss in the game that the player must overcome. He obtains a whip and can attack the enemy at strategic timings to kill the monster and beat the level.

For balancing the characters so far there is:

Main Character
Attack: obtains whip in level 2, (whip levels up with experience)
Defense: player can dodge attacks by jumping
Mobility: Player has average speed (later on the player has a choice to wear running shoes that decreases his attack but allows him to dodge and move faster)

Main Character

Plant Boss
Attack: launch thorns from body and swings vines periodically
Defense: thorns on body (if player touches thorns he/she takes damage)
Mobility: moves very slowly (since the attack of this enemy is high the speed of the character should be slow to balance it out)

Plant Boss

As of right now, the game is an idea with some concepts of balancing applied. I believe this can be an exciting game if i continuing following this path to creating this game.

Game Progression!!

Last week I took a detailed look into progression in video games. The game Team Smash is creating is called Deceptus. It is a fairly easy game and the reason for this is because we want any audience to be able to play it because the game is more of an experience. Since the game is an exploration based game there is no enemies and power-ups. However we will be implementing a time vs. health system where the player must do certain things in order to increase the amount of time he or she has to complete a level, if the time runs out the killer finds the player and the game is over. 

Deceptus - Concept Idea

The challenge vs. skill in the game will be portrayed as escaping vs. how well a player can manoeuvre through obstacles and solve puzzles. The game is about setting fear into the player with intense sound and a gloomy mood. In the game I would like to implement a lot of fear into the player so he or she does not become bored. I rather a person put the game away because they are scared instead of falling asleep at the keyboard. 

The two types of progression types are relative and absolute. In Deceptus there will be an online aspect where two players are trapped and only one can escape, meaning it is PvP. Also throughout the level there will be traps and puzzles that a player must over, meaning PvE. 

Final Fantasy X Character

Challenges that I have personally seen in games that I really enjoyed are levelling up in order to overcome a really strong boss. An example of this is in Final Fantasy X where the player would go through a level fighting regular enemies at random and then at the end of the level, fight a boss. At one point in the game I fought a boss that was really strong so I had to train and level up in order to defeat it. I really like that because it makes the game more challenging so a person cannot just run through it. Spending time on a game allows a person to enjoy all the small things about it. Rewards that players would get would appear randomly after defeating enemies or finding treasure chests. Also rare items usually appear after defeating bosses, a higher reward for a more challenging victory. The items a player would receive usually are for increasing the player’s power however after certain main boss fights the reward would be for story progression. 

Final Fantasy X - Boss Battle

 Overall, games like Final Fantasy X are everlasting to me because of all the things in the game. Whether it is how the game progresses, levelling up system or the heartfelt story it is a game that I could play over and over again. Hopefully with the concepts I learn to make a balanced game I can make a game someone would like to continuously player all the time.  

War in the North!!

During the course of the week I examined Lord of the Rings: War in the North, a Playstation game that I have recently played. I focused on a few of the lenses that Jesse Schell talks about in his book. The first thing I looked at was what the meaningful choices in the game were. In War in the North a player is allowed to pick what type of player he/she would like to play as, a mage, warrior or archer. After the player chooses the character they then decide how to level them up and what attributes are most important for their player. For example if an archer is chosen I would build up my bow abilities. Throughout the game players find new weapons and armour and update their currents items as they will break the more you use it. Another choice a player has is when talking to NPCs you can decide what to choose what to say to them. Overall I believe that the game’s choices = the players desires and that allowed the player to have a feeling of freedom and fulfilment.

Cover Art

Another aspect I looked at was competition vs. cooperation. War in the North is a cooperative game, three players can play together at the same time. The game is good at balancing competition and cooperation because when fighting enemies you build a combo and the higher your combo is the more experience you get to grow a level. Players are always trying to get the kill before a teammate comes and snatches the experience (power in competition). On the other hand cooperation is needed in the game when a boss or strong enemy appears, players must quickly adapt and use each other’s abilities to defeat them (power in teams). 

Gameplay

The head vs. hands balancing system – Lord of the Rings: War in the North gives the player many chances to attack and kill enemies, the game also gives a player a chance to play with their head, choosing what to say to characters in the game and pick what weapons and armour to use. Also depending on what weapon you use it can be advantageous as some weapons are stronger against certain enemies. 

Overall the game is very entertaining and I would recommend it for anyone that loves the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

Trailer Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ySDehGEYE

Game Review - Batman Arkham City

During the course of the break I recently played Batman Arkham City for the Playstation 3. It was an amazing experience as it had a good variety of things a player could do during gameplay. It takes place 18 months after the first game Batman: Arkham Asylum and it is set within the walls of Arkham City, a prison that holds the most dangerous people in Gotham.

Batman Arkham City

The gameplay was very smooth and easy to grasp. Since the game is in an open world environment the player controls Batman’s every move. I found this very interesting since I love super heroes and controlling Batman’s gadgets and being able to fly around allows me to be one with Batman, the Dark Knight.

Batman Arkham City: Batman gliding through the sky

The presentation of the game was flawless. It had a dark atmosphere, the colour scheme of the game fit it very well and the sound was appropriate with everything that was happening. Something I really enjoyed is when defeating an enemy a loud smash sound plays, it distinguishes when the player defeats someone compared to a regular hit, and this helps the player build their combo bar.

The balancing of the game between Batman’s strength compared to the enemy’s difficulty is well proportioned. The player can level up his or her defense, gadgets and other specialty moves but the strength of Batman never changes and as the game progresses the enemies become more difficult, adding guns and night vision. This forces the player to become better at the game and use the gadgets to their advantage.

Batman Arkham City: Batman taking on a bunch of street thugs

 
Since the game is a sequel the game developers had a chance to fix most of the bugs and problems players had from the first one. I believe they successfully accomplished this and because they learned from their mistakes this game was worth every penny. Overall I recommend this game to anyone that enjoys a good superhero game.

Overall the appeal of the game was great, it was very aesthetically pleasing, with great sounds and voice acting. The gameplay was amazing, I felt like I was walking in Batman’s shoes. The game has a lot of things to do, from side missions, to missions that allow the player to progress in the game, to beating the hell out of bad guys for no reason. A person could play this game for a very long time.    

PS Vita

Recently I purchased the Playstation Vita and have played it for couple hours. I believe the vita is ahead of all other handheld devices out there. The features the Vita has are insane! It can connect to your Playstation account to allow you to send messages, check trophies and even play games from your Playstation 3. It has a touch screen and a touch pad (located on the back), two joysticks, 3G or Wifi, front and back camera and six axis motion sensors. This hand held console is far superior to its predecessor the PSP.

I believe from a game design point of view, they created a system that would blow users away. The PSP Go that was release before the PSV did not earn many sales and let down a lot of the fans and users of Sony (including myself) so with this new and innovative product releasing, they had a lot of prove. Its vibrant OLED screen allows for beautiful images as well as crisp quality from games and videos. They created a device that would stand out from previous creations by Sony and also stand out from its competitors.

The creators of the Vita sat down and brainstormed ideas on how to create a product that people would enjoy, they expanded their target market to lure in more consumers so that sales would increase and costumers would be happy. The look and feel of the Vita needed to be balanced as well, it could not be too bulky or have too many features on it or it could become overwhelming and confusing. The style of the PSV is very sleek and easy to understand from the moment a player picks it up.

As of right now the only bad thing about the Playstation Vita is that there are not enough titles for the gaming device. However, this is to be expected as it was just released. Exciting game titles will be released in the future and I believe the Vita will be prosperous.

Magic the Gathering - Card Creation

I have created three cards for Magic the Gather and I believe they are balanced using the system we have created in class. Shelled Gator is a blue card that needs two blue and one colourless mana in order to summon it. Therefore the cost of the card would be seven (one cost point is added because the total amount of mana is five or more) this means that it would need seven benefit points to be balanced. I gave it three power points and three toughness points, because this card is a blue card it also gets one extra benefit point. The next card is Ninja of the Hidden Mask, his point system is four cost points and four benefit points. Shadow Assassin’s point system is seven cost points and seven benefit points. These cards are considered balance because both cost and benefit is equal for the player. 

Magic the Gathering - Created Card #1

Magic the Gathering - Created Card #2

Magic the Gathering - Created Card #3

Point System

Costs:

             Baseline                                          +1

             Each colourless mana                     +1

 Each colour mana                           +2

 Total mana cost of 5 or more          +1 (+2 for Green)

Benefits:

            Each 1 Power                                  +1

            Each 1 Toughness                           +1

Being a Red Creature                     +1

Being a Blue Creature                    +1

Recources In Games

Game Resource – Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out

When Does the Game Become Unbalanced?

I believe the game becomes unbalanced after the fifth match as the character is extremely hard. There are ways to defeating him however it becomes extremely challenging very fast. The opponents the player encounters before this are fairly easy but once you get to that round it becomes brutally frustrating.

Resource Graph

After looking at the resource graph it is evident that the game can be balanced more. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out is a very challenging game where a player must go up the ranks to become a legendary boxer, beating the best boxers all around the world. There was one thing that the game was clearly missing and this was levelling up the player’s character. The enemies increase in speed and power however the player does not, he or she must increase their skill in the game in order to defeat the challenging boxers. The game becomes unfair when a boxer can knock you out in couple punches, if there was a levelling up system implemented so that after a certain amount of matches the character could increase in speed or power it would add another dimension to the game. It would allow the player to be more involved and also it allows them to choose whether they want their boxer to be either powerful or agile.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out

There is something implemented in the game that allows it to be somewhat fair and that is after completing a certain amount of levels the player is given a password that allows them to start in the middle of the game. This permits the player to skip the beginning matches and go straight into the more difficult ones. This allows the player to be less aggravated because he or she would not have to keep replaying the same levels again and again.

Even though there is a way to skip the first matches the game can still be more balanced by introducing a leveling system. The player can increase their character and also become a better gamer from continuing to play the game. The battles will be less unfair and players would be less inclined to destroy their controller in frustration.