#i1330

The Binding of Isaac is a short, independent game created by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. It features a young boy names Isaac who must escape his mother’s wrath by disappearing into the basement and fighting various monsters and creatures with his tears.

The game is fairly straightforward. W, A, S, D to move, the arrow keys to shoot your tears in the direction the player wants them to go, E or Shift key for bombs and Q for pills or cards usage. Pick up items from items rooms, shops, or even secret rooms to make your character better and stronger.

(The Binding of Isaac Steam screenshot.)

This game has countless hours of play (some players have gotten more than 5,000!) simply because there’s always something new to unlock, and even when it isn’t, you will never play the same game twice.

The levels are randomly generated, as are the rooms and the items that you have to choose from. This gives the game so much variety. Not to mention the fact that after you unlock a few things during your first few “runs” (or games) you can unlock new characters which have different base stats than Isaac! This gives the play through a different feel and forces the player to adapt to another style. (Some might be slower, but have more damage, others might have more health but less attack power.)

A first glance, the game seems very RNG (Random Number Generator) heavy. That wouldn’t be wrong to say that at all. However, there are many strategies that players learn throughout their hours of playing Isaac. Some items are better than others and some characters are better than others as well.

The community can agree that Isaac is the best character to use because of his item The Dice. This allows him to “roll” (or randomly change) an item to something different. This won’t be true for newcomers, however, because Isaac does not start with The Dice. That item, along with many others, needs to be unlocked after fulfilling certain requirements.

My personal favourite character after Isaac is Cain. He has a lower health, but is much faster and has a higher attack than Isaac. He also starts with a Lucky Foot which will allow the player to take random pills without having any negative effect. (Oh, did I mention some items and seemingly harmless “décor” can and will kill you?)

Well, once you get over the lack of saving, (almost) always on a single life, and the general craziness of trying to figure out what items do what, the game mechanics are actually pretty simple and it’s fairly easy to figure out what items to keep and what items should be thrown out with each character.

(The Binding of Isaac Steam screenshot.)

Every character has their own base stats. These stats are health, damage, fire rate, fire speed, speed and range. Luck is also a hidden stat. Each item your character picks up could potentially change these stats for better or worse. For example, the Small Rock lowers a character’s speed, but increases fire rate and damage. It wouldn’t be very good with a slow character like Maggie, but with Cain it’s extremely helpful! (Funny how my favourite character always seems to be linked with good items, eh?)

Each item will do something differently and it's very hard to know just what that item will do without looking directly at the coding. It is interesting to speculate which items will work with what, and what won't. For example, Brimstone (one of the best items in the game damage wise) will not add its damage to Mom's Knife (another very strong damage item.) However, Small Rock will work with Brimstone-and very well, actually. Simply by looking into the coding, or looking through posts on the internet, one can learn that small rock will give a permanent +2 damage increase with Brimstone, as opposed to a +0.6 for every second the shot is on the screen.

With this general knowledge it does make choices a lot easier. However, it’s hard to choose items when you have no idea what they do. You could easily take every time you can put your hands on and just test it out to see how it affects your run (because the descriptions of what the items do to your stats aren’t always correct!), you could look at the coding itself and see exactly what each item does and what percentage it will affect your stats by, you could look up the wiki page every time you want to know about an item, or you could be like me and watch enough videos and streams of the people mentioning what items do to have it drilled into your head.

(The Binding of Isaac Steam screenshot.)

Whatever way you choose, your game is supposed to be fun. So even if you just want to randomly go blind and pick up every item you see, or have a helpful tab (or ten) open to remind you what you should or should not take, everybody is on equal playing field because of the general randomness of this amazing game.

In the end, Binding of Isaac all comes down to skill. Practice, practice, and more practice. Know the enemies’ movements and signs when it’s safe to attack and when you should dodge is absolutely crucial. Though sometimes there’s no way to avoid the onslaught of an attack when you’re at your last half of red heart (or blue, if you’re playing as ???) and you end up dying. It’s frustrating and confusing when you know you dodged that attack from that stupid spider, right? Well, restart your timer and forfeit that race because you’re starting right from the beginning again with a whole new world and set of items waiting for you to discover.

Check out the website HERE

and purchase this game (or preorder Rebirth) HERE (Where the screenshots are from) and HERE

The topic of today's lecture was Design Documents. These are very important as they provide a way to lay out all the processes, mechanics, visuals, and level structures. A well made design document should allow a person reading it to construct the game being described. There are many different kinds of design documents and these have changed and adapted through the years as the industry has changed.

These include:

- Concept Document

- Design Treatment

- Technical Design

- Art Bible

In the 90's the main form of document was the Design Bible. With anywhere from 30-100 pages on average, these documents thoroughly describe everything about the game. The advantages to these include the fact that creating one of these games is effectively creating the game itself as a design bible covers absolutely everything imaginable about the game and is the definitive source for information. Disadvantages of course include the fact that it can be hard to find specific items when dealing with a 100 page document and people are not likely to sit down and read through its entirety. It is also very difficult to change and update, which is essential for video games today.

I remember hearing things about the Halo Story Bible and how it contained all the used and unused lore for the game and a complete timeline of the universe. I now realize it was the design bible for the Halo franchise.

Another form of design document is the design wiki. This uses a wiki to display the contents of the documents, often with very specific topics and items on separate pages and all linked through categories and the main page. Sometime the main page can be laid out like a mind map, to help visualize all the connections. Advantages with this model include easy access and the ability to quickly update and change information. They also allow for multiple people to contribute. Disadvantages include the need to constantly update and maintain all the information on the wiki. It can also be hard to get at specific info and usually the design processes and relationships can get lost in translation when writing the wiki.

A common form today is the 1-page design document. They were created as it was realized that people often won't read past the first page, so the entire document should be a page to ensure it is read. These documents are usually very visual, often displaying level layouts, location of encounters, elaborating on specific processes, and showing examples of items or characters.

When creating a one page design, there are a few things that need to be considered. First there needs to be a main illustration such as a level or game overview in an isometric view. A description underneath clarifies the contents of this illustration. There should also be detailed illustrations that zoom and examine specific encounters or characters for example in greater detail. There are also callouts that quickly specify certain things from the main illustration. There is also often a sidebar that contains lists of relevant information. The main focus of the document is to make it understandable. Adobe Illustrator or a vector-based program should be used to create a one page design as these documents are quite large and  a vector based drawing allows for as much up-scaling as required without losing resolution or creating a huge file in terms of memory.

The overall benefits of the one page design document include as stated above, the fact that a person can quickly look it over and get what the game is about without reading through hundreds of pages. This makes it easy to distribute and forces a complete understanding in others.

MapleStory is an online multiplayer game (MMORPG) where each player chooses a class and creates their own customizable character, with a certain set of skills. Players can interact with other players as well as the environment. There are multiple features such as pets, guilds, crafting and PvP. Since this game is a free world game, players are able to explore and discover the world, while developing their character.

  Procedures, Rules, Objectives and Outcomes

This game is a free world game which allows the player plenty of freedom throughout the world. Players have ways to develop their character depending on their preference. There are multiple goals for the player such as completing quests, acquiring achievements, and the ultimate goal – leveling up. Certain quests provide special equipment or items for the player which will aid the player on the journey throughout the game. Certain quests are also required in order for the player to complete their job advancements, or unlock new areas of the world. Although the storyline behind the quests are interesting, the goals of the quests are similar, which leads to very repetitive gameplay. In addition, there are also achievements which come in the form of medals and titles for the character. This is a great feature to the game because players will feel a sense of self-accomplishment and it encourages them to play more (the lusory attitude), while also helping them to level up.

  Players

MapleStory is an MMO, which means there are thousands of players with whom you can interact with in game.  This allows for a community to be built in the game and friendships between players. The multiplayer component of the game also allows players to work together in a co-op environment or even compete with each other (in PvP). Players can help each other complete quests, fight bosses, complete party quests, or even form a guild and do guild quests together. This is a great system to the game because players can build friendships within the community and overcome obstacles together to achieve higher goals. On the flip side, there is also a PvP system for players to compete with each other and see which player has the best skill. Although the PvP system allows for competition, it is also a mode that is built for pure fun and entertainment.

The PvP system is actually really great in MapleStory because there are rewards for participating in PvP matches. Players get points based on how well they did in their matches and can use these points to obtain new items. The party quest system, on the other hand, is a alright, but it is not the best. Party quests should be completed with the cooperation and teamwork of every player, but there are certain party quests which do not require you to have a party at all (which defeats the purpose of a party quest). Higher level players may also pair themselves with lower level players to complete party quests faster and obtain rewards.

  Story and Characters

There are several different classes in MapleStory which are available to choose from. The different classes have a different background story by they were all connected by one common goal, which was to defeat the villain known as the “Black Mage”, which had caused havoc hundreds of years ago. The variety of classes the player may choose from is a plus to the game, it can accommodate different player styles. Unfortunately, with the addition of the newer classes, the older classes are becoming weaker, and players will feel pressured to create a new character of that class. Some of the newer classes also do not quite fit within the story (as they don’t share the goal of defeating the Black Mage).

  Resources

There are a variety of items that a player can obtain in Maplestory, and the player even has different inventories for each category of items. This is great because it allows the player to carry more items, or if their inventory is full, they have the option to expand their inventory (with a certain price of course) or place their items in the storage (which only has 4 slots). Some of the resources players may find are herbs and ores which are used in crafting consumables and equipment. Players may also find scrolls or other similar enchantment items to upgrade their equipment for better stats and added power. With the completion of quests, or defeating mobs, players can obtain Mesos (MapleStory currency) which can purchase items such as potions, equipment, quest items, or even items from other players.

  Conflict, Challenges and Boundaries

One of the many frustrating events in MapleStory is losing EXP when you die. Players may be completing quests by fighting mobs or just exploring until they bump into mobs, and then realize the mobs are stronger (or higher level) and players die. Losing EXP when you start out the game is not that bad because very little EXP is required to level, which means you do not lose as much EXP; but when you get to higher levels, dying will cause you a bigger setback on EXP. Fortunately, there are also solutions to this problem. You may buy an item from the cash shop (which costs real money), which will allow you to not lose EXP for a certain number of deaths, or you may also create a party with other players and help each other to overcome obstacles. Working together with other players is an excellent way to overcome obstacles because the different job classes can work together (example, warrior and a cleric, warrior and deal damage while cleric heals warrior).

  The Game

The successful game company Valve has created many amazing titles over the years. They owe a lot of that success to the design process behind every title, the Cabal Process. This process essentially takes a small group of people with at least 1 expert from every required area (an artist, engineer, programmer, etc) and puts them together for 6 hours a day, 4 days a work to brainstorm and work through a specific topic, level, or idea. As production moves on, more and more Cabal groups form to tackle smaller issues that arise. In this way, everyone in the design team gets to make some feedback and contribute to the design. This also motivates people as whatever they are working on is in a small way their idea and that attachment can produce greater work.

One of Valve's main focuses is making sure a game is fun. In a Cabal meeting, ideas are thrown around and processed until cool and fun ideas emerge. These are then implemented and play testers are brought in. The Cabal group then lets the play tester play without interruption, analyzing how they play the game and whether certain ideas worked or not. Just because an idea seems perfect and obvious to you doesn't mean the player will think so.

What makes this process so much more different than a conventional waterfall model is that every one is of the same "rank" and no one has control over anyone else, which is quite the opposite compared to the waterfall model. In a hierarchical model like the waterfall model, there is a clear ranking system with certain people in charge of a group of lower ranking people. Many of the main decisions comes from high up the chain and to be successful, a person needs to be as skilled as the people under them to understand, plan, and assign them work. This means the company head should be extremely skilled in every facet of a games creation to be able to give orders to everyone else, which is just unfeasible for a single person.

A waterfall model often begins with the lengthy planning stage. The game is planned out, ideas are thrown around and after it all is done, the game is practically set in stone. Then the development flows to the implementation stage where the plan is turned into actual coding and the game is formulated by the people lower down the chain. After this is the test stage where everything is tested and changed as needed before shipping by those from the implementation stage and even further down the chain. What's bad is that it is impossible to plan a game from the start and have everything run perfectly according to that plan. Something is going to screw up in implementation that completely throws off the plan for 3 other areas and causes massive delays as the waterfall "clogs" or "runs dry" right in the middle. For game design, this approach cannot be applied as a whole but rather applied to smaller parts of the whole such as specific mechanics or character designs.

Game design is an iterative process with many, many tests and revisions, The waterfall model and its rigidity does not allow for effective game design quite like the Cabal process and Valve's company structure. Valve's "everyone is even" type structure allows for people to move around from project to project, finding where ever they are most needed. This jumping around to find the perfect project is so integral to Valve's success that all the desks actually have wheels to allow people to easily move and group together on the fly as needed. When hiring, Valve looks for people who are great at group work and talented. They also look for people who could run the company as without bosses, every member effectively runs a small part of the company and at any given moment can be given the task of leading a group of others.

Blog Quest 3 - Pac-Man Skill Chain

Game Chosen: Tic Tac Toe

Rules:  - The game is played on a 3x3 board/grid - The players decides on who is “X” and who is “O”, “X” makes their move first - Each players take turns and decide which box they want to place their letter in - Players may place their letter anywhere they want, as long as the box is free - You may only place 1 letter per turn - The objective of the game is to make a row of 3 with your letter before the other player , the row may be diagonal, vertical, or horizontal, as long as there are 3 letters - If no one accomplishes this goal, it becomes a Cat’s game and this results in a draw - The game ends when a player creates a row of their letters or until the board is filled

  Tic Tac Toe is a two player game where the goal is to place the letters on the grid and create a row (whether horizontal, vertical, or diagonal). The opposing player shares the same goal, but with their own letter and must try to achieve this goal before the other player, meaning they must also block the other player from succeeding. If both players fail to create a row of their letters by the time the board is filled up, then it becomes a cat’s game and results in a draw. The players may place their letters on any square that does not already have a letter in it, and try to create a strategy to get 3 in a row.

  Mechanic Changed:

- Original: Players may place their letter anywhere they want, as long as the box is free

- NEW MECHANIC: Before the player is allowed to place their piece in their selected box, they must complete a mini game. If they win the mini game, they will be able to place their piece on that square, if not; their opponent can place their piece on that square.

  The mechanic I chose to change is the ability to place your piece freely anywhere on the grid, without any contesting. This mechanic changes the way each player can move; players will now have to battle for the right to place their piece in each box. Table 1 (below), is an example of some mini-games that could be played to determine if you are allowed to place your piece on the square. Whichever square the player picks to place their piece in, is what mini-game they must win to place their piece successfully. This adds more challenge to the game and a more unpredictable outcome. The likelihood of the game ending in a draw will be far less, because the element of chance has been added.

    How This Affects the Game:

By changing this mechanic, it affects the way each player can move (the movement of the players). Players can no longer move freely as they wish, but they must also consider the mini-game that has to be played.  This means that there is a constant risk versus reward factor involved and also creates interesting decisions. Players must decide if they want to play it safe and choose a square where their opponent cannot achieve a row in, or if they want to try to prevent them from getting 3 in a row by beating them in the mini-game. Whichever choice the player makes affects the outcome of the game. By changing this mechanic, the movements of the players are restricted because they must consider the risk involved in choosing that square; it is a gamble whether or not the player will succeed in placing their piece down.

The League of Ordinary Gentlemen (Kyle Wilcocks, Brandon Hope, Tyler Brewster, Aaron Metallion, Eric Chu, and Derek Chong) have been tasked with playing and identifying the positive feedback loop in the game Liar's Dice.

In Liar’s Dice, player’s each start with 5 dice and a cup. The dice are placed in the cup and rolled, placing the cup face down so the values of the rolled dice cannot be seen. Players can peek at their own dice. The first player makes a bid, a guess as to how many dice of a certain value have been rolled amongst ALL players. The next player can either raise the bid, call the bid spot-on, or call the previous bidder a liar.

If they raise the bid, they can either raise the quantity of the bid or the value. If the bid was 2 3’s an acceptable raise would be 3 or more 3’s or 1 or more 4’s.

If they call the bid spot-on, all players must show their dice. If the bid is equal to the dice on the table, the player who called it wins and all other players must discard one of their dice for the remainder of the game.

If the bid is called out as lying, all players must reveal their dice. If the bid is equal to or greater than the number of dice of that value on the table, the person who called the lie loses a die. If the number of dice is less than that on the table, the bid was indeed a lie and that player loses a die. 

Players will continue to make and raise bids until a player calls a bid spot-on or a lie as these both involve player’s revealing their dice. After someone has lost, the losing player makes a new bid and play starts up again.

A player with no dice is eliminated.

When all remaining players are reduced to one dice, bids are not called regarding number of dice with a certain value, but the sum of the values of all dice left.

The last player to have dice wins.

The positive feedback loop in Liar’s Dice is that after each round, one or more dice are lost as players who lose a challenge must discard one of their dice. Without a way to get dice back, losing dice permanently reduces a player’s chances of winning while at the same time increasing the chances for those with more dice. As all bids guess the amount of dice in total, reducing the amount makes it easier to make a correct guess in general. In addition, since players can peek at their own dice when making bids, the more dice you have is advantageous as you can see a larger percentage of the total dice in play. A person with 2 dice can only see 2 of the total dice in play where a person with all 5 dice can see 5.

The game is harder for the person with fewer dice as they cannot predict the amount of dice as effectively.  If the bid is 3 4’s and the player has a 2 and a 6, they might call the bid a lie, but there’s a decent chance that the player with 5 dice actually has 3 4’s or close to it. Because it is harder to predict whether someone is lying with less dice, the player is less likely to do so even though it is one of the only ways to reduce another player’s dice. Calling a bid spot on is also not likely to occur as this move is normally quite risky but with precious few dice on the line, it is almost unthinkable. A player with many dice can more effectively call other bids spot-on or liars, allowing them to more often retain their dice and allow for them to continue to dominate bidding.

To remove the effect of this feedback loop, the loss of dice needs to be addressed. This can be done in a multitude of ways:

Adding a negative feedback loop can neutralize the above feedback loop. A rule could be added that allows for players to earn dice back. When a player calls a bid spot-on and is right, all other players lose a die. This rule would be changed so that instead of others losing dice, the player who called the bid spot-on would earn back two dice from their discarded die. Players rarely use this rule normally as it has very low chances of succeeding but by allowing players to earn back their dice would motivate players to use the rule. The positive feedback loop still exists as players still lose dice but its effects are balanced by allowing struggling players to earn back dice.

Another way is to introduce a rule that completely eliminates the feedback loop. A possible rule change involves tracking score without removing dice. Players could start with 5 tokens (or similar form of measure) and each time they lose and would normally remove a die, they would discard a token instead. When a player runs out of tokens, they are eliminated similar to if they had lost all their dice. Keeping all dice in play eliminates the positive feedback loop and keeps everyone with the same amount of dice and with similar chances to predict dice outcomes throughout the entire game.

Progression of a normal round of Liar's Dice. The positive feedback loop can be difficult to spot.