#i3330

This blog is a continuation of :http://blogofagraphicsstudent.tumblr.com/post/103412723571/blitz-plane-blast-design-journal

Next big design decision: why planes?

There are already a lot of party games about fighters on the ground, and most of them are all about button mashing or using the right attack at the right time. We didn’t want to make a game that required players to learn a bunch of different attacks or combos (like Mortal Kombat), and we didn’t have time to create different but similar attacks for varying avatars (like Super Smash). Instead we settled on planes because then the focus could be on just staying in the air, then on eliminating your opponents second.

The only downside to using planes as the main player characters was that they were completely new to the artist (me) of the studio. I had never really had much of an interest in planes, so I hadn’t found any reason to draw them. I didn’t know where to start. Because planes suited what we wanted to do and everyone else was on board, I made a suggestion to make my job easier: what if they were paper planes? I was more interested in paper planes than in big hunking metal machines, and knew more of where to start. The idea stuck, and our theme was born.

After looking at a bunch of different models of paper airplanes, another member tried to make a prototype-- out of a Kraft Dinner box and a toilet paper tube. The little craft biplane looked so cute and opened the door to so many more options that it was immediately accepted as the primary player model. The theme became what it is now; everything in the game is made up of craft and office supplies. Probably my favorite idea for a concept is the enemy drone planes, which are made of clothespins and popsicle sticks.

And now that is where the main concept for the game came from, and why we chose to do it that way. There are still plenty more decisions to make and explain, so I’ll continue here:

Do party games need a tutorial?

Every game needs some kind of tutorial, whether it’s integrated into the game or not. For party games, the tutorial tends more to be hidden than a separate thing. Often times it’s actually part of the separate single-player mode that comes as an accompaniment to the main multiplayer mode. For Blitz Plane Blast, the single player mode is more for individual practice than anything else. The “tutorial” is fully integrated into the game, and cannot be told apart; there’s absolutely no separation. We did this to strengthen the “jump in and play” aspect of party games.

Players still need to learn how to play; no tutorial means they need to be taught how to play in some other way. The most important thing for the players to know is the controls. When the players are selecting the colour of their plane, they are shown what the control layout is for them, and they are reminded at the loading screen, which shows the different layouts as you wait for the match to start. After the controls, the goal is the next more important thing for the players to know. This is easy: be the last plane alive. Maneuvering around the screen properly may take a bit of practice, but that’s not anything that can be taught because each player will have their own style. Finally, the only non-intuitive element in the game is the power-ups, and these only appear 10 seconds into the game. The player is always given that 10 second grace period at the start of the match in order to get a little more comfortable with flying around the screen before more powerful attacks are introduced.

Were any sacrifices made in order to have better control of the maneuverability of the player planes?

Actually, yes. While creating the player physics, tweaks were made to make the plane easier to control. The most obvious example of this is in how the plane makes a sharp turn to face whatever direction the player is telling them to go. The plane’s nose still has to loop a little to get to the correct orientation, but it is a sharper turn than is physically possible in real life. It is a noticeable difference; the plane’s natural movement has been sacrificed a bit in order to make players feel like they are more in control of their plane. Another change which was made is that the plane drifts a little bit when you switch to opposite directions too fast. It is a hard manoeuver to accomplish, even when you know how. It is not a natural motion for a plane to make, but it is cool and encourages players to practice more and get to know their plane.

Every game has a period of learning for the player. When you first pick up the game, you don’t know how to play. What are the controls? What are the things you can do (mechanics)? What is your goal? All this is taught to you during a tutorial or learned throughout the game as you progress.

The tutorial can serve as a crash course on how to play the game; kind of like a training period before you start playing. The most popular tutorials are incorporated into the game itself, which eliminates the separation or disconnection the player may feel with the game. The best tutorials are those which the player does not even know they are doing.

To aid players when first learning the game, most mechanics and rules of the game are similar to real-world concepts. For example, jumping makes you go up and gravity pulls you down. A consistent button mapping for ‘jump’ is the A button on a controller or the space bar on a keyboard. Staying consistent with what players already know makes games more intuitive and easy to learn. Building off of player’s previous knowledge is the easiest and fastest way of learning.

Within games (and real life as well), learning is always easier when it’s smooth and doesn’t interrupt whatever activity you are performing. When you come across a brand new mechanic that you’ve never seen anywhere else, it’s much easier and more fun to learn by DOING rather than being told. For example, in Portal 2 most everything that’s unique to the game is labelled with a quick comic as to how it’s used or what it does. One example is how they show you to launch yourself using portals: there are 2 pictures; one shows a person falling into a portal from higher up and the other shows that person flying out of another portal.  Simple and informative, and they SHOW the player instead of having them read a block of text.

(Portal: see 2 images in bottom left corner)

Another technique used in games (which can also be applied in real life) is that new concepts are only taught when they are required. For example, Plants vs. Zombies only introduces you to the new plants one at a time and allows you the whole round/level to get used to it. By teaching each new mechanic one-at-a-time, players only have to focus on one new piece of information instead of trying to learn it all at once. This effectively eliminates 2 problems at the same time: it avoids forcing players to try and learn everything at once and forgetting learnt concepts when they are actively needed. Why learn about night-time plants in a day-time level?

(PvZ: continuing to the next level starts you off in your first night-time battle with your new plant)

Games used:

-          Portal 2 (PC)

-          Plants vs. Zombies (PC)

Intro

For my second PVP fight, I decided to critique Justin’s side scroller - BALL RUN. The level was made in unity with c# scripts.

Players

It is a single player side – scroller game.

Objectives

The main objective of the game is to reach a launch pad which has been placed at the end of every level.

Procedures

Methods of play allowed by rules: In this game, you are a sphere, and have to reach the launch pad without falling off the platform and into space and also, by avoiding red blocks which act as enemies, which will reduce your health on contact and kill you.

Rules

-          Follow and apply the new concepts that are introduced in every level, in order to pass the level successfully.

-          Adhere to warnings written on blocks in the level.

-          Avoid the red blocks as they will reduce your health and kill you

Resources

There are no specific resources in the game, as the idea behind the game is to pass levels without losing health. You don’t collect anything, but there are spawn points that you encounter in the beginning of every level, and this may be considered as a resource as this prevents you from playing the game from the beginning when you die.

Conflict

Conflicts in the game arise in the form of enemies who attempt to stop you from completing the levels. These enemies are red blocks, which reduce your health on contact.

Outcome

Since the ultimate objective of the game is to complete all levels and you have a chance to respawn in the same level when you die, due to the multiple spawn points, I would say the outcome in equally distributed.

Conclusion What could have been changed a little?

-          Instead of having spawn points at the start of each level, if the spawn points kept decreasing as you pass levels, this would have made the game even more challenging.

-          The colour/texture on the enemy could have been made different, as the enemies where in the same colour as the health bar, it was at first assumed to be a health power up.

Playtesting is extremely important in producing a quality game that appeals to the interest of your potential players. There are a few things that a developer needs to realize when making a game:  1. You are making the game for your players - not yourself Despite what you think is the fun or proper way to design a mechanic, you should always ask for player feedback on that mechanic. Often times, vast majorities of players will provide similar feedback on a feature or mechanic, and as a developer it is your job to rework that feature/ mechanic to what the players want.  2. To make a good game, you need to understand your players Understanding the people who will be playing your game is important in creating fun experiences for the players.  3. You don't come in a box with your game Players should be able to play your game without guidance from the developers. The game should provide the player with enough information for them to play on their own. This can be done with various methods, such as tutorials, or introducing players to a mechanic in a controlled environment. The typical development cycle is as follows:

As you can see, there are multiple user testing stages in development. Providing multiple user testing phases allows players to see your changes, and for them to provide additional feedback.  A typical user test consists of the user getting the product, then performing test sessions. After the test sessions, the user will provide a list of issues which they will analyse to filter out which issues to report. The user should then report those issues to the dev team. The dev team should resolve the issues, and send a new version to the tester.  A proper user test should be: Representative Accurate Specific Timely Cost-effective Actionable Motivational Feedback may not be like this without hired testers. For example, releasing a beta version of the game to the public so that you can get feedback will yield a lot of feedback, but not necessarily always useful feedback. There are various user test methods that can be referred to when testing a game.

Focus Group - 4-8 people gather to discuss game features and ideas. This generates lots of feedback, but sometimes too much feedback.  Observation - Watch the players as they play. Keep an eye on their body language. Observation can cause false feedback, as it is a bit intrusive.   Surveys and Questionnaires - Easy to conduct, but requires a large sample. Spend time developing a good survey with important questions. 

For this Dekonstruer I decided to review my favourite board game – Monopoly!

Players: Monopoly is a multiplayer, board game. It can be played by a variable number of players (2 to 6 players).  The player interaction patterns followed are are:

Player vs. Player: As players actually play against each other.

  Objectives: The ultimate goal being to drive them into bankruptcy. Players move around the game board buying or trading properties, developing their properties with houses and hotels, and collecting rent from their opponents. 

Rules:

Players take turns in order, with the initial player determined by chance before the game. A typical turn begins with the rolling of the dice and advancing their piece clockwise around the board the corresponding number of squares.

Chance/Community Chest:

If a player lands on Chance or Community Chest, they draw the top card from the respective pile and obey its instructions. If the player lands on an unowned property, whether street, railroad, or utility, they can buy the property for its listed purchase price.

Jail:

A player also lands in jail if they land on "Go to Jail", or draw a Community Chest or Chance Card saying "Go to Jail". When a player is sent to jail, they move there directly ("Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.") and their turn ends. If the player is not "sent" to jail but just lands on that space, they are "Just Visiting", incur no penalty, and move in the usual manner on their next turn.

If a player is in jail, they do not take a normal turn and must either pay a fine of $50 to be released from jail, use a Chance or Community Chest Get Out of Jail Free card, or attempt to roll doubles on the dice. If a player fails to roll doubles, they lose their turn. If they fail to roll doubles three times, they must automatically pay the $50 fine to be released. While a player is in jail, they may not buy property directly, by virtue of not being able to land on the properties.

Properties:

If a player owns all of the properties in a color group and none of them are mortgaged, they may develop them during their turn. Development involves buying miniature houses or hotels from the bank and placing them on the property spaces, and must be done uniformly across the group. Once the player owns an entire group, they can collect double rent for any undeveloped properties within it.

Mortgaging:

Properties can also be mortgaged, although all developments on a monopoly must be sold before any property of that color can be mortgaged or traded. The player receives money from the bank for each mortgaged property (half of the purchase price), which must be repaid with 10% interest to unmortgage.

Bankruptcy:

A player who cannot pay what they owe is bankrupt and eliminated from the game. If the bankrupt player owes the bank, they must turn all of their assets over to the bank, who then auctions off their properties (if they have any).

Resources:

There are 28 different  properties  you can buy on a Monopoly board these are open to everyone if not purchased already to purchase a property you must land on it so it’s easy to  get properties the hard part is in getting control of more properties or just the strongest properties like boardwalk. Other resources are houses and hotels those must be bought  from the banker for the price it says on the property card you want the house or hotel on.

Resources in the game would be getting new titles when you fight with new characters. Other resources like unlocking new costumes and new characters are done by completing challenges in the game. New levels can be unlocked by playing in the online mode.

  Information:

How much of the game state is visible to each player? The entire playing area is visible to the player as his indeed is a board game. Everything about each player is known for the most.

  Sequencing:

Some players have also used tactics such as selling houses from one set of properties, then immediately buying them back and placing them on more expensive sets of properties, all during the course of a single turn.

Although the housing auction rule sometimes applies, this tactic could still be used if other players simply cannot afford to participate in auctions at the time.

When the number of houses available to the bank is particularly limited, some players may quickly purchase and hoard all available housing without ever upgrading to hotels, effectively restricting anyone else from upgrading as well.

Theme:

Limbo is a 2D puzzle/ platformer created by indie developer, Playdead. The game was a huge success on release. People seem to love the ambiguous story, the creepy art style, and the overall gameplay. In this blog, I am going to be discussing Limbo and its formal game elements, why I think it was designed the way it was, and why I had a hard time enjoying it. Players As soon as you start playing, you are thrown in to a creepy black and white world, playing as a boy. There is absolutely no introduction or back story in the beginning, and I found that it was hard to develop a lusory attitude for the game.  Limbo is designed to be played alone. I feel that the game was designed this way for a few reasons. The first is because it was the developers first major title, and single player games are much easier to design and develop than multiplayer. The second reason is because of how immersed the player is supposed to feel. Making this a single player game attaches the player to the character more, as there is only one character to focus on.  Being a single player game, Limbo only has one player interaction pattern - single player vs. game. Objectives There is a distinct lack of objectives in Limbo. One reason that I had a hard time playing through the game, is that I didn’t know why I was playing. There wasn’t any story revealed to me and I felt like I was just playing the game for the sake of trying to beat it, rather than complete any sort of objective.  This being said, Limbo is a puzzle game; and thus, objectives such as solution and alignment are prominent. The purpose of completing the puzzles in the game seem to just be to advance further in to the world. As I said before, there is no defined objective, besides to continue.  I believe Limbo was designed to be a very “artsy” game. Kind of like books or movies with ambiguous endings. I often felt myself coming up with reasons as to why I am trying to advance or what I am looking for, or even why the character is in this world. Procedures Limbo has very basic controls. Run, jump, grab. These are used in various ways to enhance puzzle mechanics in the game. The only repeating procedures in Limbo are the puzzles.  Puzzles continuously occur in the game, as the game would just be running and jumping without them. After completing a puzzle, the player can expect another puzzle! …And so on and so on, until they reach the end. Rules With no introduction or tutorial, Limbo lets the player figure out the rules for them self. There is no punishment for dying, and many of the puzzles teach players in harsh ways by presenting them with objects they do not yet know are dangerous.  Teaching the player a new mechanic in a controlled environment is not a thing in Limbo. The player is thrown in to the world, and must figure out what things do by trial and error.  I believe that the game was designed this way to bring out emotion in the player. The first time I got impaled by a giant spiders leg, or fell to my death and heard a nasty *crunch*, I was definitely surprised. In many cases, I had no idea that some objects were interactive because every thing is in black and white, and it looked like part of the background. This confused me, and made me feel stuck a lot of the time.  

Resources The player resources in Limbo are all temporary to a puzzle, or set of puzzles. Most of the time, the player gets to control something like a box which they can push and pull around. Each puzzle provides the player with the resources they are going to need to solve it. It is up to the player to figure out how to use those resources to proceed. This makes every object in the game seem like it has some sort of value or purpose. Conflict Being a puzzle game, Limbo is all about conflict and player restrictions. Many puzzles offer their own twist on how they limit the actions of the player. Each one requires the player to think differently or to reflect on similar past puzzles to find a solution. The game also presents the player with many hazards such as extreme heights, deadly objects, hostile monsters, or water in which they can drown. These are all part of obstructing the direct path of the player and creating conflict.