Grind Quest: Skills, Goals and Feedback

In games, game designers implement feedback systems that indicates important information to the player which can be anything from completing a mission to achieving a requirement to collecting or activating a special move or item, etc. Now the following 3 games give excellent feedback to players.

GAME 1: MINION RUSH

 In the IOS game Minion Rush players are constantly shown different methods of feedback to demonstrate who well they are doing in the game:

• Despicable Meter
• Trophies
• Score
• Bananas 

All of these different displays help to indicate how far the players have progressed in the level and how well they are doing. A higher despicable meter means that players are doing their required despicable deeds in the game, now while you do not need to commit despicable deeds the higher the meter is the more you can unlock. In addition, to these displays the game also use numerous light effects, flares and flashes to indicate when you complete a despicable action or have activated a power up.

GAME 2: GUACAMELEE

In the PS Vita game Guacamelee, the game designers created a good feedback system for players to know how effective their attacks are and how good they are at linking attacks to create a strong chain of attacks:

•  Timer 
• Chain 
• Finisher Move

So in Guacamelee (which everyone should go out and play it's amazing!!) players can always see how well they are completing and landing their attacks by the display that shows their current chain length. In addition,  the game tells players what attacks were landing correctly and how many points were awarded for them. In addition, when enough hits are landed in the chain the game displays a button icon over the enemy indicating to players that they achieved a finisher move for completing a larger enough chain. Furthermore, the game indicates items and power up locations by utilizing flashes and flares.

GAME 3: RED JUMPING HOOD

Red Jumping Hood, another IOS game, displays the game's feedback in a similar to Minion Rush:

• Score
• Chain (continuous, unbroken actions)
• Double Score Bar
• World Bar

In this game, players are required to cut flowers in a continuous manner without missing flowers while they have to avoid obstacles and enemies. The game tracks how many flowers have been cut in a row and indicates how large the chain is, constantly updating it until the chain is broken. In addition, the game shows how well the player is doing with collecting flowers and creating large chains with the double score bar. As long as players are constantly creating long chains the bar constantly fills up until players a rewarded with double score until the break the chain. Like in Minion Rush, special double score flowers shine as do your in game item when you are in the middle of a chain. In addition, enemy bees sparkle when they start to form in order to alert the player to stop them.

Personally I think that in order to constantly continue your chain (which is pretty hard to do even for an experienced player) requires serious concentration and coordination. 

Blog Quest 2: Design your Game Item 2

So in my previous Blog Quest 2 I talked about adding a clothing editor as a new mechanic in the new Pokemon X & Y games which would be super awesome BTW (GET ON IT GAME FREAK), however in this blog I will be looking at an older, but equally fun game for the N64 (So for all your youngings out there the N64 or Nintendo 64 was this awesome gaming system that came out in the mid 1990s and had awesome games like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Pokemon Snap and PAPER MARIO AWWWW YEAH!!). Now you may have guessed what game I'm going to be talking about and adding to in this blog, if you didn't care to figure it out or wasn't paying attention its Paper Mario.

So Paper Mario is a standard role-playing Mario game where Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach (again) and Mario must once again go on a quest to save the princess. However in this game Mario acquires a plethora of sidekicks who help Mario continue through the levels and fight his enemies. Now Mario also gains badges, that gives him power ups and special attacks, throughout the game even though only so many can be equipped at once. Mario also gains a few items in his magical adventure, some of which are consumable and others like his trusty hammer are here to stay. Now Mario's hammer and a few of his sidekicks help him get to and unlock new areas and retrieve items, however I feel like the developers could have added another item that could have made the game play and battle system a little bit more interesting.

MY GAME ITEM: A DRILL

So in the images below you can see a little bit of the mechanics that are involved in the battle system as well as in the actual world like the jumping, the hammer and the sidekicks.

 Now all items and partners in the game has specific purposes to either help you in battle, get hard to reach items progress or progress through the level, in fact one partner even allows you to hide from enemies however it only allows to hide while you aren't moving. Now when I was playing Paper Mario I remember thinking why isn't there a way to sneak past or under enemies I don't want to fight at the moment but the only way you could do that was either trying to run past them or try to out maneuver while moving past them. Now this is where the drill item would come into play, not only would drill allow you to dig down and hide from enemies but it would also allow you to sneak underneath and past them. 

Not only would this allow you to sneak behind an enemy and do a sneak attack but it would also allow to enter blocked areas. When underground players would have a set time limit to stay, move or sneak attack an enemy. Furthermore the drill would allow you to defend yourself from sneak attacks and allow you to access secret underground areas that would either contain mini games or special items and upgrades. Personally I think the drill would allow players to explore interesting new areas and even allow you to ally themselves with a new and interesting partner. In addition, I feel like the drill could even allow for new interesting attacks in battle like a charging spin attack that could strike all enemies on the field or an attack that allows the player to dig underground for one turn and then attack the next. I feel that the drill would allow for a more strategic based gameplay for older players and a fun game mechanic for younger players as well.

Grind Quest: Digital Prototype Feature Treatment

So as many of you may know (well that is if you actually read this thing, which I still doubt there is anyone other than my TA) you know that in my program we are required to make a game every year and this year is no different. My team, Wrecking Ball Studios (it was either this or Biscuit Hammer which wasn't happening), is creating a 3D side scrolling platformer called Big & AI-ME, where you play as a big foot like character with this little tiny robot companion who are trying to save the world from evil robots (Honestly I think it sounds like a bad movie plot but alas I was out voted in my group full of boys who clearly don't know a good game when they see it, I MEAN I JUST WANTED TO MAKE JILLIAN'S HAIR ADVENTURE WHICH IS SUPER AWESOME BTW BUT DAN HAD TO OPEN HIS BIG STUPID MOUTH AND INSULT AND BELITTLE MY GAME IDEA IN FRONT OF EVERYONE CALLING IT STUPID AND RETARDED AND SAYING THAT NO ONE WOULD WANT TO PLAY IT WHICH HE'S WRONG CAUSE A BUNCH OF PEOPLE LIKED IT.... but whatever moving on).

 Now some people may think making a game is easy but it really isn't, there are so many things that go into making a game and a lot of concerns that need to be addressed in order to have a working and fun game. For my current team and game, I have no doubt in my mind that we will be able to produce a game but whether it looks good and is actually fun to play well I'm a little worried about that, which is actually going to be this blog's main focus.

This Year's Game: Big & AI-ME

So in the above image you can see a kinda of sneak peak at our game's main and side character, Big and AI-ME. Now in this game evil robots have taken over the world and the humans have developed AI-ME, a little robot with one goal to shut down all the evil ones with his destruct code, who runs into Big after robots have attack his forest and he is looking for some payback. They team up together to fight the evil robot army and save the world (I personally don't like this idea at all, I feel like its cliche and tacky. It was basically the boys desire to have robots and big foot in our game and being the only girl in the group I was quickly out voted). Below you can see some concept sketches of our main and side characters:

MY CONCERNS:

Now I've sort of made my peace with our game idea and have accepted that I'm always going to be out voted in my group and will probably never get to make Jillian's Hair Adventure but I'm a little worried over our current game.

• The Story
• So I'm a little worried about how the story will factor in to our game, especially since it is a very story driven game. Personally I have a feeling that our "writer" is going to botch the story and make it either stupid and really strange or is going to make it completely 2 dimensional and boring (cause he says he is such a great writer but I did so much better than him in Creative Writing so I doubt it).
  
• The Aethetics
• Now I'm a fantastic artist, I've even won an award at the Design Exchange competition for my art and designs so I have no doubt in my mind that I can produce some fantastic game assets, but even though I can produce nice stuff to look at not everyone in my group does the same. Now I understand that everyone has their own talents and maybe art might not be one of them but I'm more than willing to help if asked. Like one of my group members ask for my opinion and tips to make his model textures better looking which was great cause after some advice on what to do they now look awesome, however our main character doesn't look as good as it could be which I can't fiddle or edit since it's part of my group member's assignment (even though I wish I could fix it so badly, like seriously!! It's messy, a weird yellowly colour instead of a more tanish colour like I suggested, the shading and highlights are weird and unnatural among other complaints I have). Personally even if everything else is amazing I feel like if our graphics aren't up to par it will take away from our game which I'm really worried about.
  
• The Gameplay 
•  This is one of my main areas for concern right now because our gameplay right now is to be honest BORING. You and walk through the level, jump and punch and enemy which is about it. Who cares if we have a beautiful game with an awesome story if the actual gameplay sucks, like seriously what a waste of potential! I wanted to include double jumping, climbing and maybe even crawling but all of those ideas where shut down, not even a maybe but just a no. I didn't care if we implemented it in this semester or next semester but I really wanted to add to our gameplay a bit cause right now it's boring. Personally if anything was going to kill our game it's going to be the boring gameplay and I'm really worried about what is going to happen.

Personally I feel like this game was a bad idea from the start but I'm hoping that we can add some interesting things into our gameplay so the entire game isn't just running, jumping and punching otherwise I don't think our game will be the best we can make it. 

Blog Quest 2: Design your game item

So for this blog I will be talking about a game item I would add into a currently existing game to change to add a new mechanic into the game. Now the game I am going to add an item into the new Pokemon generation games, Pokemon X & Y. In this game the players now have multiple options for customization however Game Freak Inc for some reason did not include something that could have taken both their mechanics of character customization and player interaction to the next level. Now don’t get me wrong with their current mechanic you can customize your player in numerous different and unique ways to the point where almost no one will have the same character, but I feel like Game Freak overlooked something that could have added an entire new aspect into the game. Now before I get into what I feel is seriously lacking from Pokemon X & Y, I’m gonna go over a few things about Pokemon and this generations game that gamers really took too.

Now everyone who started playing Pokemon from the very beginning, I’m talking first gen Pokemon Blue and Red, know that the only thing players could make their own was your name, the name of you rival, your pokemon’s name, what pokemon you had in your party and what moves they learned. Even with the limited customization, these games were still fantastic and when Game Freak introduced the secret bases that you could customize and change location whenever you felt like in gen 3 and being able to choose between playing as a girl or boy in gen 2 this set the Pokemon games (or at least in my opinion) apart from the rest. Which each new thing players could customize, the fan base stayed loyal, no one cared that the game story was essentially the same thing over and over again just with a different team who had slightly different motives than the last in a new region. The introduction of character customization in the new gen games (and a new and improved storyline that differs than previous generations while still staying true to Pokemon’s generic storyline) has made Pokemon X & Y the best pokemon game ever released (well at least in mine and numerous pokemon youtubers opinions).

 

Now I’ve been talking about how increased the options for customization are in this gen’s game but I haven’t said anything about what you can customize. That is because there are so many different things you can customize I needed to have its own section for it.

WHAT YOU CAN CUSTOMIZE:

·         Your Skin Tone

o   That’s right for the first time ever players can not only customize whether they are a girl or boy but can also choose what skin tone they want their characters to have. Before this the trainers were strictly Caucasian which did not accurately represent all the players since it wasn’t only Caucasian people playing it.

 ·         Your Hair Colour and Style

o   Yup you can dye and cut your hair as many times as you feel like whenever you feel like. Grant you there is no option to dye your hair pink which would have been cool but you can still make your character have the same hair style as you do if you so choose.

·         Your Eye Colour

o   Yeah you heard me right, in this game you can even change your eye colour so if you was a character with blonde hair and green eyes well you can do it, all you need is the contact case and money for the salon and you are good to go.

·         Your Clothing

o   So Game Freak introduced clothing boutiques in this game where you can customize your outfits however you choose as long as you have the cash to do it. You want to wear a green fedora with a white sleeveless shirt, pink tights, a yellow skirt, brown riding boots, a black feather on your hat and a light blue purse? Well in this game you can and the only person who can judge you is you.

·         Your Furfrou (Which is a pokemon)

o   That’s right you can customize a pokemon in this game, there is a salon where you can style your froufrou and change what it looks like based on how ever you feel like. 

 ·         Your Streetpass Avatar

o   So in this game your registered friends on your 3DS show up on your home screen and you can edit what avatar they see when they are playing.

MY GAME ITEM: A CLOTHING EDITOR

Now with all these options for customization I’m surprised Game Freak didn’t add in a mechanic to edit and dye your clothing, so that players could customize their characters more. I mean for the male players there is a serious lack of clothing available to them even after they beat the game, and although that isn’t as much of an issue with girls there is still some limitations for the clothing options and the colours available for the clothing. Many of the so called ‘new’ clothing available in the boutiques are simply the same clothing in just another colour.

With a clothing editor, players could dye current clothes so that there would be more colour options. Players could dye different pieces of clothing to either match an existing outfit better or have a favourite piece of clothing in their favourite colour (What I wouldn’t give to have red riding boots and a cute little mint green dress for my character). In addition the clothing editor would allow players to combine pieces of clothing to make new items, as well as edit the actual clothing. For example players could combine a long sleeve shirt with a sleeveless shirt to create a vest and a shirt outfit rather than having to search the boutiques looking for one and then finding one that isn’t exactly what you want or in a colour you don’t like. Players could create sweaters or cardigans for their characters by combining and editing certain pieces of clothing (So there are no sweaters or cardigans for girls, which I’m really upset about, I JUST WANT A DAMN CARDIGAN FOR MY CHARACTER IS THAT SO HARD GAME FREAK!!!). 

A clothing editor would be a new and interesting mechanic for Pokemon players to interact and explore. This would be a interesting challenge to players (since making clothes isn't easy, trust I know from experience) and a great new mechanic that would allow for further customization in the Pokemon games. In addition the clothing editor could allow you, when your 3DS is connected to wifi, to upload your designs to the in-game boutique which could be shared to your registered friends thus adding to Pokemon's player interaction mechanic. 

Personally I would love to see this mechanic added into the new generation with Game Freak's next game update or even in the next gen game because I feel like it would add a whole new aspect of the game and would be really interesting to see what kinda of clothing players would edit and create, GET ON IT GAME FREAK!!!!

Reverse Scröwdriver Crafting 2

So ever since my midterm for GDP 2 I've kinda been MIA from the blogging world, now since I'm still not convinced that anyone actually reads this thing I guess that being MIA for so long is really that big a deal, but for anyone who actually reads the blog, I was kinda busy work on the game my group is making this year (I've had to redo some of our assets I don't know how many times cause someone keeps touching them and also my iPad reset itself when I updated my software so I kinda lost my 2D art and had to start over -.-) getting my work for a few of my business classes done and lets be honest I may or may not of started watching Grimm, but none the less I'm back to blogging my little heart out. So I now present to all the internet goers and TAs who have to read this my second reverse Scrowdriver blog on Pac-man.

 If you have never played Pac-man before click here to play (HERE).

Pretty much everyone should know the greatness known as pac-man is and have played it, if you haven't I'm going to assume that your parents didn't let you play video games as a child or you have lived under a rock for your entire life (I MEAN WHO DOESN'T KNOW PAC-MAN!!!! SERIOUSLY!). Well for anyone (I seriously doubt there are people over the age of 11 who have never played Pac-man but whatever) who has never played Pac-man I will quickly go over the game;

Pac-Man:

Now in this game you play as this cute little yellow guy whose goal is to eat all those yellow dots (the pellets) and avoid those rude little ghosts who are trying to stop you. Along the way you can eat cherries, which give your score an extra boost or those larger yellow dots (the power pellets) which allow you to consume the ghosts to get them out of your way temporarily so you can continue your conquest and boost your score. Even though the controls and game play is simple it is a fun and addicting game that I suggest all of you should go play, like right now. By the way if anyone is interested in the history of Pac-man (I have no interest in exploring that in this particular blog) you can check out this link HERE for more info.

Now for my homework I had to change one key rule/ mechanic of Pac-man, and explain what my change would mean for the game, you can find out all about my change below:

MY CHANGE:

So for my change I decided that I wanted to change how the power pellet works. Now instead of making the ghosts able to be consumed, the power pellets, when consumed, will freeze the ghosts in place. Touching the ghosts after consuming the power pellets would no longer get rid of them but would result in losing a life like it usually would when coming in contact with the ghosts.

Now this mechanic change would force players to have to think strategically to maneuver around the frozen ghosts, rather than going through them, in order to continue collecting the pellets. This change will increase the difficulty of the game for more experienced players. This increases the strategic aspect of the game and makes the game play more interesting, because now players have to think about how to move around the frozen ghosts rather than simply going through the ghosts.