Blog Post 9: Course ReflectionI learned that game and play does not just have a single formed definition. To me that they both can and will interchange, and I also feel as they can interlock with one another. The Extra Credits Videos that were presented to the class were both enjoyable and informative. What I found interesting, was when I learned that there are video games that are based on tragic events. Giving me a different perspective that not all video games will be made to be enjoyable, but can give the player a different view about what happened. The material covered in class seemed to coincide with one another, although at time it seemed to go off a bit, but I was still able to get what was the lesson that was being covered. During the course; I read about games, wrote about them, which was honestly a bit strange, and I also learned to design a game. I actually helped to design and make parts of two video games. It was not as enjoyable, but at the same time it was. I also gained a new perspective about what goes into making video games. I for some reason thought it was some type of simple thing, but I learned that so much goes into bringing life into a video game.
0 Comments
Blog Post 8: Final Project My partners; Clarenz, Bryan, Tam and myself have made a rocket game called, Rocket Blast. We decided to make this for our final project, as we all thought it would be a good experience for the four of us. We thought that four artists would have a hard time making a video game, but we learned that if we helped each other we can make a game, and we did.
The game starts with the menu. The player can choose if they want to jump into the fray, take a minute to look at the help option, or exit if they so wish. The player is thrown into outer space, and needs to dodge and destroy the alien combatants that are trying to stop them. We are talking about adding lives so the game just does not end right away, but gives the player three extra chance to keep going. Also, we are planning on adding two more levels of difficulty. A medium level and a hard level, in order to give the players more of a challenge. Make the player have to work for their victory. Although, we know that we still have some areas to fix, but I know that I am looking forward to the peer reviews in order to see what my peers think about the game. As a group we will be talking about what our peers had to say about the game and we will be taking their comments and/or concerns into consideration on how to improve our game. Blog Post 7: technology based non-video gamesWhen I first started playing Ingress I was extremely confused. When I asked my peers about the game, they were just as confused about what to do as I was. It does not help that there was no real help as to what we had to do. So we just walked around to the nearest portal that appeared on our screens and just tapped on what was there. We spit up and then I slowly began understanding what I needed to do. I somehow leveled up to level two during my first round with Ingress. Now that I have experienced the game more, I feel like I understand it somewhat more. Another peer and I were discussing how to play and we have helped each other understand how the game works.
Some of the game mechanics that are included in Ingress are hand management and mobility. The player uses their cell phone in order to locate the portals in order to attack, hack, or claim for their faction. Another of the games mechanics is that it rewards teamwork. This is done by the players of the same faction to place the resonators at a portal and by also helping each other destroy the other factions resonators in order to claim that portal for their own faction. All in all, the game is the first augmented reality game that I have experienced. It is quit addicting and I will more then likely will continue to play it. Blog Post 6: Video Game PrototypeThe game still has the majority of the same elements as the alpha, with the exception of the pop-up window that now shows up once you hit a banana. This new window now informs the player if they have succeeded in gaining their drivers license(winning the game) or if they have failed(lost). The game play is still the same, the player still uses the arrow keys on their keyboards. All the while, still trying to avoid the bananas and trying to hit the other characters in order to gain driving points. Although, the game still lags when the player moves the car forward on the course. The sounds that the characters create are slightly louder then they were in the alpha version.
Trestohn and myself want to be able to give the player more options, vehicle wise. We also want to make the game harder for them as the player gains more driving points, giving the player more of a challenging course. Of course we need to make the menu option page in order for the players to choose what they want to use for their game play. We have what we originally wanted as the game does what it is suppose to do, and with some of the feedback from our classmates and fellow video game players, we hopefully have what it takes to improve our first game project. Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0rSr5TjktEZWDVmbnhST3NtR2s/view?ts=5705b346 Blog Post 5: First Playable The name of Trestohn and my game is called, Drivers Ed. My role for this game making project is to be the artist. I make the characters for the game and I am also the one that is looking for the sounds that will be used as the sound effects. The main question that we asked the student players that were testing our game was, "What is your biggest criticism of this game?" We had some suggestions as well as some good feedback and positive responses of Drivers Ed. My first player suggested that we have a menu at the start, instead of the player being thrown into the game. Also to make it more challenging by adding more bananas, and he also mentioned the have a high score tracker, as well as the game should get harder after every hundred point, and to have a motorcycle option. My second player was the opposite when a came to the bananas and he said that maybe the characters should move.
From the comments on canvas, we will be taking those into consideration. Especially those about adding more obstacles and making the car move slightly faster. The one thing that Trestohn and I were both commented on was to make to game more challenging, by either more obstacles or to make the car faster. Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0rSr5TjktEZU3pXb1BlcnpRems/view Blog post 4: Video Game LabThis Is The Only Level is game that was new to me, as well as how it worked. Each level is the same, but the differences were the colors changing and how the controls changed with each new a level. The mechanics were constantly changing and becomes somewhat frustrating after some time. At one point I just sat there pressing buttons one at a time to try and attempt to figure out how to move the elephant. Which brought on a bit of anxiety. Due to the counter that the game has. What the three games have in common: survival.
I honestly played The Oregon Trail because it is a game that I have not seen or played since I was in middle school. It brought back memories of always getting one of the characters killed then, not long after, getting a 'game over.' This is exactly what happened again. The survival of the characters depends on the choices that the player makes. Here it differs from the other two by reading the story line and then choosing which option is best for the situation at hand. Which makes it much more simple then This Is The Only Level, but still the same as Prismic Shift. Prismic Shift was also a new game for me to play. This arcade game was similar what I have played in the past. Using the joystick and buttons to control the rocket and fire the lasers at the objects that are trying to destroy you. The joystick is used to move the rocket in order to avoid the pink and blue objects that will destroy you. While the button are used to fire the lasers, but they can also be used to rotate the rocket and use the lasers to destroy the objects and gain points. Each of these three games, I had to figure out the best way to survive. While some were easier then others, one made me sit back and try to figure out how to survive. While it is entertaining playing new and old games, it is also entertaining to watch some people play. My partner Bryan was somewhere in between. Especially when he played the dating sim, Jurassic Heart. At first he was moving relatively quick, but when he lost the interest of the T-Rex, his competitive side showed. He quickly started the game over and took it a bit slower. At the end he managed to complete the game buy keeping the interest of the T-Rex. When he play This Is The Only Level, he lost his patience after two levels. I want to see how other people play different games, because everyone reacts to things differently. Wizard Wizard is new to me as well. I thought that it was glitching at the beginning. The design is simple but effective. The character moves when I press the arrow key, but I feel as if the other random characters don't really have any important roles. They're just there and say random things and or phrases. What I don't like is the fact that you I save it, forcing me to start over each time. Blog Post 3Brief Description:
The game that my partner, Brian, and I made was similar to Capture the Flag. Only it was changed to Aliens vs. Humans. Player against player. The objective is to get to the opponents side and take their encrypted information, and decrypt it in order to defeat the opposing species. Play Log: 1. The game that my partner, Brian, and I made was similar to Capture the Flag although we originally were planning something similar to Battleship. We started by drawing an alien ship, Earth, and finally some asteroids. As we moved along we began to change certain aspects of the game. We started with a 12-sided die, then to two dice, lastly one to roll during game play. As we came to more difficulties we needed to alter some of the game play to make it interesting. We also added a tower of six facedown cards to make each turn a bit more challenging before being able to roll the die. One must turn a card, beginning at the bottom and moving upward, turning a total of three cards. Beware, the card that one turns cannot be a 10, A, J, Q, or K. For if you do, you must replace those cards and you do not get to roll the die. After both players have gone each player rolls two dice, trying to block the other from moving to the next asteroid. This was a bit confusing, we'd sometimes forget who's turn it was. Once a player reaches the opposing side, and returns to their side, you must now add four facedown cards to the bottom of your tower. The same rule applies to this new tower as it does to the six tower card. Only this time once you get all four cards, then, and only then, can you win. We had also planned on having quadrants in order to attack, but we soon realized that just complicated and made the game confusing, so we decided to remove them. 2. Once the game was made I played it at home with my mother. I also realized that I did not have any dice, so I improvised by using six dominos. I reread the rules and we played as my father watched. The game went smoothly and was entertaining, we lost track of time. Once we finished the game, I had only just realized that I had completely forgotten about the two dice roll needed to block the opponent from advancing to the next asteroid. This is where I realized that this game can and/or does not need the two dice roll in order to deny the opponent from moving to the closest asteroid. After playing without the two dice roll, the game felt like it moved much smoother. Playing after we had created the game the two dice roll part was a bit confusing. More then likely why I completely forgot about it when I played the game again at home. Her judgment of the game: approved. 3. For the third session of playing this game, we had to pick another student and also play the game that they created with their partner. After we had played his game, we moved onto mine. After he read the rules and we began playing, he also was thrown off by the two dice roll. So, with that in mind, I decided to remove the two dice roll. The removal does not hinder or damage game play in any way, it honestly feels smoother without it. Also, he mentioned that the lines that separate the quadrants confused him, I told him it was from an earlier stage and that they will be removed. They do not really serve a purpose at this point, but only confuse those who pay attention to them. He also thought that the flipped cards had to add to 10 or higher, and once I explained that he knew that it was only that card that had to be 10 or higher in order to lose that turn. Making me realize, I should mention that in the rules. His judgment: he also approved of my game. Blog 2: Session Report 1 Spaceteam
There were two games that my group play, "Spaceteam" and Cards Against Humanity." This session report is about a new game called " SPACETEAM," made by Ad Magic Inc. There were five of us all together: Tam, Clarenz, Allen, Bryan, and myself. The game is set so everyone that is playing either wins or loses together. There is no one winner in this game. The objective of this game is to help each other build the spaceship in order to win. The game was a bit confusing at first since none of us knew exactly how to play, it took us about five tries in order to understand how to play. We all had to help each other with what the orange card was asking of us. The orange cards either told us what we had to do as a team or they showed what tool cards we needed in order to fix that part of the ship. The tool cards are the blue ones and they had the tools on what was needed. Of course, by helping each other we couldn't just pass the cards to anyone, that would be much to easy. Like I said, it took us five tries to figure out that we couldn't do that. You can only pass the card to the person that was directly to the left and right of you, but the key term here is "pass". Allen was the one who figured that part out. Once we understood that, we had managed to win the game as a team much quicker. Which made the game considerably more interesting and entertaining. Links below. Spaceteam: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/184491/spaceteam Cards Against Humanity: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50381/cards-against-humanity Building a Game For our first game building assignment, we had to make a game. A board game to be exact. My partner was Bryan, and we made a game that was similar to the Game Of Life. We changed the outcomes on the board to things that are subjective to correspond to life as a university student.
Session Report: Arcade Game The game that I choose to play from archive.org was Nibbler. The snake consumes the dots and gets larger and larger as it does. I choose this game because it reminded me of a game that I use to play on one of my old calculators, Snake. The concept is the same, the more dots the snake eats, the longer it becomes. Nibbler is the exact same way. The longer Nibbler becomes the more challenging the game became.
At first it took me a while to get use to the game, there is a tiny bit of lag that took me longer then it should have to figure out. It was the command key to Nibbler. After I become accustomed to the lag, I was able to play a wave longer. I also noticed that Nibbler would start to move faster the higher in waves that you arrived at, making the game more challenging. I think playing on the emulator is what causes the small amount of lag. If it was on the original hardware I do not believe that problem would exist while playing. I also think that the emulator takes away a certain element that the hardware would provide to the players. A certain "wow" factor that playing the original would have had at the time. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2016
Categories |