Anggina Primanita

Game Review: Plants VS Zombies

In Plants VS Zombies, player act as a home-owner whose lawn is invaded by a number of zombies. To protect themselves, the home-owner is using their plant that is able to defeat the reign of Zombies.

Plants VS Zombies is a tower defense games that requires player to protect themselves and survive from Zombies that coming to eat their brains by planting many plants on their garden. The game setting revolves at front garden of player house. From daytime invasion to night time, and even invasion on player's rooftop.

Initially, player can only use two kinds of plants, the sunflower and pea-shooter. Sunflower provides sunlight which then can be used to put another plant in their garden, while pea-shooter when plant will shoot peas that can defeat coming zombies. Each stage consist of several wave. The end of a wave is marked by huge amount of zombies coming to home-owner garden. If player can survive the final wave using their strategy, they will be able to progress further.

As the game progressed, player will then be introduced to Crazy Dave, their neighbor, that act as player's herald in the game. Crazy Dave will introduce new kind of plants, zombies, or mini games that will happened in the following stage. Later in the game, Crazy Dave will also open a shop where player can buy power ups, garden protector, or unlock new plants.

as requested by our client, the team added an arrow features to prevent a strategy of player waiting to steal key near the treasure become absolute winning strategy.

Game Review: Worms Armageddon

Worms series are classic games that you will never tired of playing. It is one of my personal favorite, especially for its portability of features, whether it's an arcade machine, mobile phone, or smart phone, due to its simple commands, Worms series is playable without many changes on the gaming experience.

Worms Armageddon (GBC version) is the third installment of Worms series. In the game, player will control a group of worm against another group of worm controlled by either the game's intelligence or another player. The battle mode is turn based, which means, a player will first control their worm to attack before another player does their turn, and so on. Controlling the worms means that player have to choose which worm that is going to attack, which weapon will be used, aiming it at opponent, and determine the power of weapon.

In the arcade mode, player will fight against groups of worms which becoming more intelligent and stronger while they are progressing. There are no prominent storyline given in this installment of Worms serie, only different color of worms team that later will become playable in the game. 

The environment setting in worms game is very interactive. Starting with a set of environment, player can choose to attack some part of the soil to create a hole that can be used for better aiming or hiding from a weapon.

COOKING QUEST You are a new fresh graduate chef and look for a job as junior chef. It has always been your dream to become a professional chef in High Society Hotel. This is not that easy to achieve your dream. As you start your journey to pursue your dream, you are accompanied by your best friend. Both of you have the same dream and make a promise to support one another to become professional chef. You have to gather experiences by working in some hotels before you can achieve your dream working in High Society Hotel. Here is the journey begins... Easy Hotel You and your friend are accepted to work as an apprentice in the small hotel near to your home. However, it is not a smooth journey. Conflicts happen right at the beginning of your first day as an apprentice. You accidentally dropped pile of plates and your head chef is angry and he prohibits you and your friend from making dishes instead, he makes you doing only butcher job. Seeing the result of your job (sum your decorating and speed point and roll 1D8, check if exceeding 55), the head chef will either be happy and awards you with a new knife or forget about the mistake you made. Three weeks after you worked in Easy Hotel, you and your friend are finally assigned into cooking station. Your first job is to make omelets for the breakfast, it seems easy but you need to fry quickly and make sure that your omelets are well-done and not over-cooked (sum your speed and frying point and roll 2D6, check if it is between 55-60). If you are doing marvelous job, both of you will get additional skill point (+2 frying point, +1 speed point). Now, both of you are ready to embark to the bigger hotel. Star Hotel Based on experiences you gained in Easy Hotel both of you are accepted into Star Hotel as junior chef. The head chef delegates desert making job as your first task. He asks you to make “ice cream” and “chocolate mousse”. Regarding your jobs, if you did well in this task then your skill point will be added (+2 baking point, +2 boiling point). In addition, you will get new recipe. It is your choice to keep working in this hotel for a while (players are given choice to cook again to gain skill point) or to continue pursuing your dream in the next hotel.

Tutorial Review: Making RPG board game and map

Background

In this week, we were assigned to make an RPG board game and its map. We decided to make a slightly different background story on our RPG Board game. Rather than mythology based fantasy or Sci-fi game, we decided to make the story as "Cooking Quest" in which the role players are apprentice cook with different basic skill sets. Our conflict resolution system is similar to those of Microlite 20, because we are inexperienced at playing RPG game, but, as it has different background story, each moves are perceived differently.

Players

At first, player has to determine their specialties, whether they are...

roundsman chef --> average chef that able to do all activity normally

pastry chef --> chef specializing in making pastry delicacies

roast chef --> chef specializing in grilled and roasted food

pantry chef --> chef specializing in cold food

and fry chef --> chef specializing in fried food

each of the specialties will give a special stats boost on cooking battle.

Initially all player is given average value of 25 for each stats, that is..

frying skill

boiling skill

decorating skill

baking skill

and speed of cooking

We decided to give the stats boost for each chef as follows

roundsman (all stats +1)

pastry chef (Decorating +3 Baking+2 Speed+1)

roast chef (Baking+3 Frying+2)

pantry chef (Speed+2 Decorating+2 Boiling+1)

Fry Chef (Frying+3 Speed+1 Baking+1)

The bonus stats was given based on needed skills of a chef's specializing in such. 

Obstacle

Some obstacle that was thought during the tutorial to make Cooking quest more interesting are:

broken kitchen equipment, that requires combination sum of player's stats for them to be able to continue in cooking contest, or else, they will participate in the contest with  deducted statistics.

gourmet food challenge that gives bonuses if fulfilled but will reduce stat value permanently if failed.

Objects

some equipments that we thought of for Cooking quest are:

secret recipe, works sort of like amulet to those bear it, secret recipe will give knowledge in form of bonus stats for specific dishes related to it

cooking utensils that is used to increase stats value such as frying pan (frying), knife (speed), boiling pot (boiling), etc.

Conflict resolution system

Conflict resolution system that we thought of are a cooking contest which works as follows

Get dishes from customer

Head cook (game master) will determine who to cook first

To complete a certain step in a dish, player has to roll dice and choose which steps the want to fulfill

When it is the head cook turn, roll dice according to dishes. Number appeared from dice will decrease customer patience. When their patience is up, each roll will decrease popularity point of the chef. Popularity point/award point works like health point.

The cooking will end when:

All dishes have been finished

Customer patience for all dishes is below 0 or popularity point of all chef is below zero.

If all dishes is finished, each player can match their higher states and get exp accordingly

Player might also get bonuses in the end of the game such as equipments or secret recipes.

Map

The map for cooking quest is made of hexagon tiles, each represent one step. Player can move from one hotel (marked with red) to another through passageways (marked with green) or rocky road (marked with grey), but they might encounter some cooking contest on the way.

Discussion

Tutorial Review: Playing Microlite 20 for the first time

Background

In the tutorial, we were introduced to RPG board game called Microlite 20. We were given a rule book and a scenario to play the game. Playing microlite 20 requires two kind of players, namely, the role player and game master.

Players role

Role players are the usual player, in which they choose their character races and job class and then going through adventure and defeat monsters based on their statistics value. Game master is a new role in a game that I have never encoubtered before. The job of game master is to guide role players through given scenario. Not only they have to guide the players, they are also given the freedom to give action twists in the story to make it more interesting to role players

My experience

At the initial play, player is given the freedom to build their character. They can choose which race their character is and what is their character job class. Then, players will be able to determine their basic level 1 statistics. If player already built a character prior to playing the game, they can continue with their previous character. Because me and Lauren never played the game before, we created our character first and determined the statistics. Once our character ready, we started the game with Lauren as main character, me as her best friend, and Mr. Dillon as our game master.

We actually played the game twice, first, me and Lauren played the game and both of us become the game master, and the second one with Mr. Dillon. I find the second game much more interesting because Mr. Dillon created some twists in the story. At the start of the game, our game master introduce us to the scenario's background story, so that we feel involved with the game. The game master also ask us to choose between the options and check our status whether we can pass a challenge or trap or not. 

Once we faced the first monster, we were quite confused with how the game plays, but we the help from our game masters we then become more fluent in playing the game. In a battle, we got to first roll the dice to determine our sequence in attacking, and then, when my turn comes, I have to choose which monster I wanted to attack and with what weapon, and then roll dice again to see whether I can hit the monster or not, and then I roll the dice again according to my weapon choice to see how much damage I deal to the monster.

Game Review: We love Katamari (PS2)

We Love Katamari is the second release of Katamari Damacy's series. Continuing the iconic first game, Katamari Damacy, player again rolled up the world with their Katamari.

The initial release of Katamari Damacy series were following the story of the Prince rolling up objects using his Katamari to become a new star and constellation that was accidentally destroyed by his father, King of all cosmos, when they were in a picnic. In the second serie, The king of all cosmos and the Prince is becoming famous because they were able to save the stars and constellation. Now that they have many fans around the world that loves them, they are enjoying their popularity and answering to fans' request. The requests are varied from one to another, from only gathering a certain object, avoiding objects, or doing the standard, rolling Kamari into a certain size within a time limit.

The gameplay of the game is indifferent than the first release, in which player has to use a ball called Katamari to gather objects. To gather objects, player has to control the Prince to roll into objects and made it attached into their Katamari. Player's Katamari can only roll up object that is smaller or about the same size as it, but, the more objects they roll, the bigger their Katamari is which means that player can roll up bigger objects. 

There are no power-up kind of bonuses within the game. Available bonuses are accessories that can be wore by the Prince, and Prince's cousins that will become playable once they are rolled. The only power-up related kind of reward is given when player completed a stage exceptionally (very fast, or very big Katamari). Reward given is the ability to play the stage without time limit.

Game Review: Patapoko

Patapoko is a game that let player to prevent evil paper animals that is going to conquer the world. It is a shooting game that make use mobile phone's gyroscope feature to let player aim before shooting the evil animal. Connected to a popular instant messenger service, Line, Patapoko allows player to compete and brag their high score to their contacts.

Set in a present time, player is shown a cut scene when they first play the game where an evil soul is unleashed from a storybook and bring together evil animals to conquer the world. Player, responsible for unleashing the evil is required to protect the world by defeating as many minions of his as possible. At the start, player is given only one kind of bullet, radishes. Using radish, player can defeat the animal by first choosing an area to be zoomed in, player then can aim to evil animals by tilting their mobile phone, in the end, player can choose whether to wait until the radish hit an evil animal or to shoot it for faster game. Each time player successfully hit an animal, a rocket bar in the bottom of the screen will be filled. When the bar is fully filled, all animals within screen will be rolled, giving player bonus points. Furthermore, evil animals that comes to the screen will be faster and having more life points, which requires player to hit them more than once to defeat the animals.

When player progressing in the game, they are allowed to buy power-ups using cherries that they got from successfully hit evil animals. The power-ups are varies, from adding life point to the player, increase power of available bullets, or even, unlocking new kind of bullets that is more powerful than the initial set up. In within game, there are also some power ups and helper item that made player able to easily progress within levels, such as exploding balloons, power up bananas, or rolling tree logs.

Patapoko is a game that evoked player protection instinct. Through in game story, player will become more determined to protect the world from evil animals. To be able to protect the world, player must be able to survive as long as possible without letting evil animals destroy the world. When player is defeated because an animal is either too strong or having too much life points, player will be able to take revenge on them when they obtain power ups or upgrade their bullets.

pirates of carriboard server is now online!

the server is made ready at 111.68.119.146 and can be accessed using SSH and FTP.

SSH function is used to access the directory command and made server node to go online. To keep the game online, though, the desktop that connecting to server must always be on.

FTP function is used to send and renew server script

Game Review: Circus Charlie

In "Circus Charlie" player act as Charlie, a clown that works in a circus. To make the audience excited, Charlie must be able to finish a circus act within a distance.

There are six different circus acts that divided into three difficulties, that is flaming hoops, Monkey Jumps, Trampoline, Ball walk, Horse Hurdle and Trapeze . It is also mentioned in a review that there is a bonus stage if player is able to complete all the events without running out of chances.

In each of the game, player has to finish a circus act in a varied distance based on the difficulties (about  without running out of their chances. Initially player has three chances, but they are able to gain more chances as the game progress as they obtain a "heart" bonus object. If player failed to do their circus act, one chances will be deducted, but, player does not have to retry from the starting distance again. Circus Charlie is using a checkpoint system, in which, if the player able to surpass a certain distance and failed after it, they only have to retry from the checkpoint distance.

In each act, there are several bonuses that can be gained if Charlie is able to do a difficult act. Some of the difficult acts are evades his friend, the fire juggler, that is doing another circus act which requires Charlie to jump higher, or jumps into smaller hoops, which requires more precise jumps. If Charlie is able to do the difficult act, he will obtain a money bag that hangs in the difficult part of the act and adds a heap of point to the game.

As the room and player movements is ready, the next step is to synchronize items within rooms and players.

There are many randomize items in pirates carriboard environment, all has to be synchronized through the server.

In total there is about 64 items that has to be synchronized by the start of the game and there are also some objects that has to be re-spawned once it dies down or obtained by players.

The two options I have right now are:

Having server randomize all the items and sent the code number to client and left it to client to translate the code into spawning of item, or

Separate the randomize work within 2 clients and use server only as message sender to each client

Game Review: Anipang

Anipang is a color matching game, where player objectives is to match three or more tiles to increase score in one minute. At the end of the game, player's score will then be shown in a leaderboard in which they are competing with their Kakaotalk (a messenger service) contacts.

In anipang, the tiles are five different cute animals. For player to get score, they have to match three or more animal of the same kind. Matching three tiles will give standard score, while matching four tiles will give slightly higher score, and a bonus tiles of crying animal that can burst out another tile next to them, matching five or more tiles and combos will give even higher score and a bonus tile of ghost that can burst all of same animal tile if tapped.

Aside of the basic tile matching, every time player match animal tiles consecutively, they will be in bonus mode, in which every matching tile will burst 3 more tiles around it. There is also a "pang" tile, which is a bomb that can eliminate all tile horizontally and vertically. To get a pang tile, player must fill a pang meter by matching many tiles. Every time the pang meter is filled, a pang tile will appear in the board, while the meter is emptied. 

There are also power ups that can be determined before the game started, such as automatic search, free thunder pang, and time extender. Using a power up will spend player's coin that earned during the game, while to be able to use the power up, it is depended to the number of pang player has obtain in the game.

Game Review: Puzzle and Dragons

Puzzle and Dragons is a combination of two basic games. The first is a game where player act as monster trainer that grows a set of monsters, and the second one is color matching game, where player must match three or more orbs in the same color in the battle.

In Puzzle and Dragons, player starts with a starter monster and a bonus monster given in the tutorial. To earn money and new monsters, player must enter a dungeon and defeat all of the monster inside. If all of player's monster died at some point in the dungeon, and player do not choose continue, all of the money earned will be lost, while if they win, they will earn all of the money and monsters they obtain during battles. Monster earned during battles can be added to battle team,  fused with one of battle team monster to increase their level, or fused with one of battle team monster to evolve them with stronger monster.

Monster battle in puzzle and dragons is using color matching concept, where player must match the tile, called orbs, to attack or heal themselves. Monsters in Puzzle and Dragons are divided into 5 different elements, fire, water, earth, light and dark. To attack using monster of an element, player must match the orbs with their respective color (fire - red; water - blue; earth - green; light - yellow; dark - purple). There are also heal orb in which if matched will heal player's monster.

Because of the two type of games being combined, puzzle and dragons evoking many different instinct of players. In the game, players identify themselves as monster trainer. While raising monsters, player's nurture instinct is evoked as well as their curiosity, because the monster that their nurture will then leveled up and evolve into another monster with ability and statistics that player did not know before. This will bring joy and pride to player, as they can see their monster become stronger and have leveled up their skills. While battling in dungeons, if player is defeated, they will come back with stronger monsters, which means that their revenge instinct is evoked. Once the dungeon has been defeated, player will earn money and different monsters, which initiated their collecting instinct because player want to collect as many monsters as possible.

End of cycle 3 report

Room design has been done and implemented, although not integrated. Connection flow illustration is below:

Server design has been tested to work outside of local intranet using phone modem connectivity and has been working well, although the game seems a bit laggy, probably because of the connection used at the time.

I did a little research on hosting providers that allow nodejs and socket.io, according to some sources on the internet, the most simple socket.io development can be done using nodejitsu. Pirates of carriboard has been registered under the name piratesofcarriboard, but as I tried to host the node, the hoster reply with busy, and still has not responded. Is considering to use another node, but has not found any yet.

Port used for pirates of carriboard is moved from 8099 to 8080 as it is more flexible than other ports, and restricted internet connection will still allow the port to be accessed. 

For next cycle, I will be responsible in looking for the hosting provider as well as helping another team members in polish the game and add some new features. I also still need to implement the new room connection design with head version of the game.

Report meeting with Client (Fri, Nov 24 2012) result:

new SVN server for individual team member has been created

Game Design: Territorial Acquisition Game

Background

Territorial acquisition game is a game where player is competing to have more territories. With this background, me and my friend, Lauren, were brainstorming many ideas of territorial acquisition in literal manner. Our ideas were primarily about each player to be able to conquer another player territories. In the end, we changed our idea and tried to gather ideas of more subtle territorial acquisition game. We came up with the idea of different mafia group trying to break out from the jail by getting more friends and connection in the prison, and while doing so, player must be able to hide away from guards and not being found out by one spy between the criminals. As we presented the idea to the instructor, he suggest us to translate the idea into board game. We then translated the main idea into a territorial acquisition board game that utilizes player's memory.

Gameplay

In the designed board game, two or more players are competing to win an ally from an array of criminals by collecting their demand. There are two boards utilizes in this game, one board contains criminals and their demands, while the other board contains objects. 

In two player game, there are 10 criminals with 3 demands each. This demands translated into 30 objects in 5 x 6 object board. Initially all of demand cards in criminal board and object cards in object boards are closed. In each turn, each player will open one card from one of the criminal demand and one from the object board. If the card is the same, it will be theirs, if it does not match, nothing happens, and the turn is given to opponent.

In the end, player with more criminal friend wins the game. But, if both of the player has same number of criminal friends, their assets will be calculated to determine the winner.

Discussion

This game mostly invoking player's competition instinct as they are competing to get more friends than their opponent. To win the game, player must collect as many friend and assets as possible. This part of the game is intended to entice player's collecting instinct. In the end, player that wins the competition by collecting will feel pride that leads to excitement.