Critique 4: Prototypes

Tank Hero

I think the team did a good job of simulating what their gameplay will actually be like with their prototype (that is what we’re critiquing, right? The prototype, and not to concept as a whole?). The map system simulated free roaming movement, and obstacles were represented well.

One thing I didn’t understand was the use of dice to simulate shooting. Maybe I wasn’t clear on what the dice were simulating, but it sounded like the dice judged how far the shots went. I thought this would have been something the player would have control over, so it was odd to see it reduced to a random number system. Maybe I missed something…

Ruin

I liked the prototype, it was small, but effectively conveyed the layout of levels and the obstacles the player would have to overcome. We probably could have used something more like this in our own prototype. The rules also seemed simple, but robust, able to simulate almost any action the player could take in the final game.

One thing about the prototype that bothered me is that it seemed like the enemies were poorly represented. They didn’t seem to move, or to seek the player or attack at all. Maybe in the real game the enemies won’t pose much of a threat, but in the prototype it seemed like they were just drawn on for the sake of inclusion rather than a fully fleshed out feature.

Self Evaluation

This week I conducted play testing, as well as gathering feedback from potential players. I also began the final pixel art design for the main character, which is almost complete. Pretty soon we’re going to have to be in full production mode, and be cranking these out every day. But for now, heres what our buddy Bruno Blackburn looks like:

I also talked with Bowen about making the music for the game, and searched for examples of songs in the style we need and mailed them to him. We met briefly to finalize the music design.

Game Critique 3

Game Balance

Mario Galaxy would be called a balanced game by many. The difficulty of the game closely matches the progression of player skill, and the mechanism for unlocking harder levels ensures that learners cannot jump into the harder levels before first completing prerequisite skill challenges. This mechanic works by letting players only “buy” new levels to play based on how many stars they have from completing previous levels. The game requires 70 out of 120 stars to unlock the final level and beat the game, so there are many combinations of ways to get these 70 stars. If some levels are proving too hard for a fledgling player, they can move on to another level rather than being trapped with one challenge. This way, frustration never outweighs boredom, and vice versa.

The gameplay itself is also very balanced. There are no impossibly hard challenges, although some of the later ones come close, but by that point only the die hard fans would still be playing anyway, so it evens out. The controls are simple enough that the required actions to complete a challenge aren’t difficult to figure out, mostly the timing is the real challenge. Most enemies require a timed or targeted attack to finish off, rather than a series of difficult controller inputs.

One critique I would level at Mario Galaxy is that it’s challenges are much simpler and less open ended than it’s precursor, Mario 64. Mario 64 offered huge open ended levels in which the user could approach certain challenges from multiple angles, using creative means to give themselves an advantage. Mario Galaxy is much more linear, and usually there is only one way to complete a challenge. Also, Mario Galaxy’s structure is composed of a series of checkpoints with minor challenges the user must overcome before moving on. In this way, the flow is sometimes disrupted, as there is only one way to complete each challenge before moving on, and if the user dies later on and has to retry, the challenge can’t be solved in multiple ways; the user is forced to do the same actions over and over, which becomes boring.

Puzzle League is a very balanced game. Part of this is because it’s simplicity; there are very few game rules to take into account, it’s the skilled manipulation of these rules that allow for victory or defeat. In this way, players compete against one another based primarily on the skill of the player. Luck is very rarely a deciding factor in a match.

Also, if players are finding that one is of a much higher skill level than another, and both players are being taken out of flow, one from being too frustrated, one from boredom, there are handicap and speed options that can be adjusted to allow players to fight on an even playing field. To some players this cheapens the level of sport in a match, when players play at different levels of difficulty, but from a balance standpoint it’s a very tempting solution to a hard problem.

Designing a balance mechanism into a game like this would be a feat, and people would probably complain just as much. With systems that allow a down and out player to make a miraculous comeback not entirely based on skill, it becomes more and more based on luck.

This brings up an interesting point in balance. Is it more balanced to have a game where anyone can win 50% of the time, regardless of skill? Technically, that is very balanced. But you might as well be flipping a coin instead of playing a game. Games only become skill based when a player can push the game in their favour, and I would argue that games of chance are not really games at all, but speculation.

Anyway.

Self Assesment:

This week I finished up our paper prototype, and tested it with my roommate.  I also talked a friend into doing some concept art for our game’s main character, and then I drew some pixel art based on his drawings. I asked Bowen and Arlen to send out some music they’ve done in the past, and we’re closer to deciding on the musical direction of our game. I’ve also asked Arlen to find some concept photos for the level design of the game, and upload them to the doc. The design doc continues to grow as we all add to it as a team.

Self Evaluation

Well crap, I sort of missed the deadline on this one. But on with the show.

This past week I worked on making changes to the design doc, as well as co-ordinating planning with the team. I cut apart some sprites from another game to use as a base for the engine creation until we finish the final art. I also mapped out a paper prototype, and started putting it together. It’s not very pretty, but it’s good enough for our purposes I think. We’re focusing on the combat system rather than the actual level structure of the game to playtest at the moment.

Game Critique 2

Main Gameplay modes:

Mario Galaxy – The primary gameplay mode is simply running around and jumping. Most of the puzzles and obstacles in the game can be completed with these simple elements. The challenge of performing these actions is increased when gravity is thrown out of whack in some of the later levels, and simple actions like running and jumping don’t always operate as intended.

This is played from a third person perspective, with the camera floating in space looking down at Mario.

To control Mario in this mode, the player uses a joystick to move and presses a button to jump. Challenges include timed jumping, running on a narrow path, timed running, and using the appropriate type of jump for the correct situation.

This may seem simple, but the elements above often work together to create frustrating situations for the player. For instance, the camera doesn’t correct it’s viewpoint very often, and sometimes Mario can be hidden behind an object for some time before the player either maneuvers him out of hiding, or rotates the camera. This made less annoying by a feature that shows a shadow outline of Mario through solid objects, but it’s a small comfort, as the user may plunge to their death in a black hole without knowing why. Also, the camera has a habit of sticking upside down when Mario is on the bottom of a planetoid, and the user is completely powerless to change the viewpoint in this situation at all. It becomes difficult to make jumps and even control the direction of running accurately in this situation.

Puzzle League – The primary gameplay mode of Puzzle League is … moving blocks horizontally to make chains of three or more blocks! There are many MODES of play, such as 2 Player VS. mode, Garbage, Line Clear, Puzzle, and others, but in every mode the player is doing exactly the same task with various objectives in mind, but these differences are mostly superficial. Fortunately they are different enough to lend a sense of variety so the gameplay doesn’t get too stale.

The perspective is difficult, the space the game takes place in is sort of an imaginary bucket, with no elements to suggest that is has any dimensions beyond X and Y. I suppose this could be called third person as well.

The challenges the user must overcome change dynamically over the course of play. The player may first need to clear as much space as possible, or try to make a powerful combo as soon as possible to give more time to make future moves. Later they may have to make a chain in a certain position to prevent one particular column from touching the top of the screen.

In all of these situations, the user is limited by the speed of their thumbs and their pattern recognition skill. The moves open to them are to move the swap cursor in any direction and press a button to swap two tiles. The player may also use another button to raise the tiles faster, in case they run out of tiles to work with.

Team Evaluation – This week I (Justin Holmes) wrote the outline of our design document, took notes from brainstorming sessions and transcribed them, and took part in brainstorming and research. I also put together a PDF of different examples of concept art for level design and character art, as well as general art direction and feel.

Balroop Johal – Helped a lot with brainstorming and concept generation. He also edited the design doc and contributed to the document as well. Balroop also did research as to which engine our game will run on.

Alden Chudlea - I’m sorry, I actually don’t remember if Alden is your name, but I know it starts with A. Mr.Chudlea was in contact during class, and contributed a few ideas after the initial brainstorming, but otherwise did not contribute to the design document.

Bowen Lu - Bowen has been in contact briefly via email, but otherwise has not contributed this past week.

Game Critique 1 – IAT 410

This blog will now be commandeered as an outlet to post critiques of games and other stuff for a Game Design class taken at SFU Surrey in the Spring of 2008

We’re meant to choose two games to critique, and explain the concepts and why we like them. My games will be Mario Galaxy, the most recent Mario outing on the Wii, released in 2007, and the various versions of Tetris Attack, aka Puzzle League, aka Panel de Pon for the SNES, N64, GBA, and DS.

Mario Galaxy is the latest from the ubiquitous Mario. Princess Peach has got herself kidnapped etc etc, and Mario enters the final frontier to rescue her. The game involves flying from a central hub area to various galaxies and planets with different themes, and completing simple tasks to collect power stars that enable further galaxies to be explored.

The mechanics are similar to previous titles, Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine. Mario can run around a 3D plane, jump in different ways, talk to the sparse inhabitants, and interact with several kinds of objects. Different power ups are available as well, such as Fireflowers (allow Mario to throw fireballs) to Springs (turns Mario into a spring so that he bounces everywhere) that can be used to solve puzzles.

This style of exploration an platform jumping mixed with puzzle solving is very compelling to a wide range of people. Mario has managed to stick to his roots enough to still warrant nostalgia to those who first met him in the 80’s, which I appreciate. Overall, the game is extremely cheerful and energetic with happy sound effects, and Mario’s own whoops of joy as he cavorts about tiny planets.

The innovation in this title comes from the way the levels are traversed. All the gameplay takes place on smallish spheroid planets, each with their own gravity. Mario can run around the perimeter of each planet, leap between them, and occasionally use gravity wells to fly into orbit around a tiny planet. A lot of the joy of exploring comes from the ever shifting gravity fields, the surprise of what each planet contains, and the satisfaction of completing challenge and finding a power star.

Puzzle League is one of my all time favourite games. Similar to Tetris in some ways, the player uses a cursor to swap blocks horizontally in a container to try to match three or more of a kind either vertically or horizontally. When they match three of a kind, those blocks disappear, and the blocks above slide down to fill the gaps.

The blocks constantly rise from the bottom of the screen, and if they touch the top of the container the player loses. As the game progresses, the speed increases, keeping the pressure up. However, by matching more than three blocks in one move, or by creating a chain of matches (called a combo) the player can freeze the playing field briefly to allow them more time to think about their next move.  Making combos quickly becomes essential, and this is where the true heart of the game lies.

I like this game because of the simple gameplay, and pattern finding elements. The game can be extremely addictive, and tiny coloured blocks begin to appear when players close their eyes. I’ve played the game for such a long time that I’ve had to start turning up the CPU difficulty all the way to the highest setting, and giving myself handicaps to be challenged. So, I like it a lot.

The gameplay is not goal oriented, instead it’s sort of motivated by self improvement and competition than “beating the game” which can’t really be done. You could spend about 30 hours to get the maximum score of 999 999 999 in one game, but that’s about the highest possible accomplishment in single player mode.

Brain Roll

What’s been shooting out of the old box lately?

- A ’superhero’ type character who instantly trades places with another person when physically struck at a certain speed by that person. Would it be okay if his name was Placeholder?

Placeholder isn’t brilliant, or well bodied. He dresses like any other mid 20 something nobody. His swapping ability doesn’t lend itself to crime fighting in any real sense, but man, don’t start get into a fist fight with him. Anyone who physically attacks Placeholder finds themselves instead being punched with the same force by Placeholder.

He can jump off the roof of a building, as long as he slaps someone on the head on the way down. Splat.

- On the same line of thought, a similar superperson who is instead reincarnated as the last person he touches when he dies (with the same body, not the other person’s body). His crusade against crime involves careful espionage, aiming to touch the body of a crime lord. Then he returns home, and commits suicide. Sometimes it’s difficult to explain why he suddenly shows up in the dead boss’ house.

- I seem to have some hastily drawn concept art for a 2D platformer who’s protagonist is a little faceless square with cartoon arms and legs. Apparently the little guy can be crushed flat on two dimensions to waddle under low walls, or slip down through drain pipes and the like.

While flattened horizontally, it’s possible to stack objects on his head and carry them around like a flatbed, and when flattened vertically he can bend himself into a bowed shape by grabbing his ankles, and release to spring to new heights. Also, use himself as leverage to move boulders.

- I’ve been working on a concept in my head to demonstrate a dependence on oil. It’s pretty hard to make it marketable and retain a globally conscious message. So far I’ve got: a soldier from an invading dimension who can drain the energy from his surroundings to power awesome combat abilities and machines, restore health, etc. arrives from his dying home dimension in a mostly peaceful dimension at the head of a massive army. Drunk on the life energy of the new world, he accidentally destroys a small town, or drains the energy of a child. He witnesses the fear and loathing that the destruction of the environment is causing the inhabitants of the new world, and turns on his fellow soldiers, vowing to stop the invasion. It’s not going to be easy, because all the enemies have roughly the same powers as our hero, and aren’t afraid to use them. He, on the other hand, loathes using his abilities, but finds that it’s impossible to fight without using them, and thus killing more innocents.

The energy drain I’m imagining as an area of effect that permanently scars and blackens the ground, turning trees to ash, etc, but at the same time healing the hero and boosting his power.

Maybe the point of the game is to find an alternate source of energy to support his collapsing home dimension.

It would be hard to institute a punishment system based on how much a player uses their abilities. Maybe if they damage the surrounding area too much in one level they lose, or in each level there is a village that must be protected from a wave of enemies, but that seems boring. As for the design, there’s a hard way to do things that doesn’t hurt anyone, and an easy way that has larger resource cost. The user must decide on a balance between the two.

Aegis Wing steals my ideas

Some info on Aegis Wing.

Basically, it’s a free game made by some students on an internship at Microsoft that is released on the Xbox 360’s download service.

Basically, it incorporates some of the ideas I had previously written about in my game concept “Chroma Lancer,” the ones where the players ships can join together and become more powerful, but move slower, and one person becomes a turret.

In reality, they did it in a much more elegant way than I ever envisioned, and the game is 4 player, including co-operative online play, and has an impressive feature set of pretty good concepts. It’s a shame that it’s not really that interesting to play. And I beat it in about 20 minutes. Maybe if they’d stolen more of the ideas, like that about colour theory, or something to make the game more than just a very very basic shooter without any of the panache or heart that the Japanese shooters usually maintain. But for a 4 man project, I can’t fault them, and less so for giving it away for free.

A Samurai who Builds a House or More

I’ve had this idea in my head for a number of years, and I hope if I express it somehow that it will leave me alone.

The game is one part Rampart (taking turns building a fortress and firing on opponent’s fortresses), one part Bushido Blade (samurai combat), one part Ninja Gaiden (third person jumpy-flippy combat), and one part AutoCAD (architecture blueprinting software).

The player is an out of work Samurai, who for whatever reason begins a construction business. Less a business and more of a one man operation, he designs or builds prefab structures out of various materials, such as bamboo, wood, stone, etc.  The clients may be people whose homes have burned due to bandit raids, people relocated because of government issues (road construction) or just plain old people who need a house. Each “stage” may comprise of a group of people who need houses, or live in a rundown area that needs fixing up. As the player progresses they can see their work in the town that springs up around them, and the people who go on their day to day lives, happier to now have a roof over their heads.

But it’s not as simple as building houses, because that doesn’t solve the reason why these people don’t have them in the first place. For example, the player may need to halt further bandit raids as the occur, eventually seeking out the bandit stronghold and extinguishing them once and for all. Or perhaps using a combination of martial skill and politics to convince the government to stop relocating entire towns for the purpose of building a large road, etc.  Once the player has solved the problem and built enough roofs, they take leave, wandering down the road to the next stage.

The world is fairly free roaming, allowing the player to explore the wilderness rich countryside of feudal Japan looking for advanced building techniques, sword mastery, building materials, and story items. Each town has a number of side quests the townsfolk will ask of the player, to whom hopefully the characters will become well known, and will appear later in the story depending if the player helped them out or not.

The buildings may be designed by the player in a way I haven’t fully fleshed out yet, but using a simple blueprint (perhaps simulated by drawing in the earth with a stick on the house’s foundation) the player must fulfill the needs of his client, and will only be allowed to start construction once those needs have been met by having the client inspect the blueprint. This creates a further bond with the town, as the player decides the layout and placement of structures that they will later be able to walk around in. In this way they take ownership of the task.

The act of building is done by the player in real time, although heavily augmented by the samurai’s unique skills. The skills are over the top: the player can leap many feet into the air, cut down a tree with one blow from his sword, cut timber into boards with a series of jabs, cut swathes of bamboo which are swiftly bundled, and maybe even cut through solid stone if the job requires it. The samurai’s skills in these areas increase with use. The raw materials must be sought by the player in the surrounding area; vegetation slowly replenished itself, but stone may be harder to find.

Once the raw material is gathered, the player runs back to the construction site with it on his back, and sets to work. The building system heavily mimics the combat system, with players ‘attacking’ the house to build it, although in a different manner. A series of status bars (or simply visual cues) show how complete certain aspects are. The player may raise one entire wall by rapidly striking bamboo into place, which can be done from a certain distance away (and even while airborne) until the player runs out of the raw material they are carrying. Then it’s off to collect more. The samurai can also throw a supply of nails (did they even use nails?) into walls to complete them (this is necessary to finish certain sections, and may require that materials and nails be thrown alternately for more complex structures) but the nails may also be thrown as weapons. Raw materials as well can be used as projectiles in a fight, and the player may be required to defend a structure AS THEY ARE BUILDING IT using the very same raw materials. In this way, the act of creation and defense can quickly shift to attack, using the same buttons, with a simple change of target.

I love the idea of dashing into the forest, and with several quick strokes creating a bundle of lumber, and then jumping/running back, firing boards into place followed by a stream of nails (or other suitable construction apparatus… Glue?) and then pivoting mid air and firing the same nails into a bandit’s face as he attempts to set fire to another building.

More Cards

How about, a fighting game? With cards? Augh, that is so obvious and overdone.

But regardless, something like the following:

Player have a hand of cards with different moves on them (let’s just say punch, kick, and special move at this point). They lay a series of them down  face down on the play area, let’s say three cards. These represent the fighter’s next moves as they’re planned in the mind of the combatant at the start of the fight, what they anticipate their opponent to open with, and their response, etc.

Both players simultaneously flip over their first card, and place them side by side. The cards are compared, and depending on the outcome of the selected moves, there is an outcome, and players take damage, or are placed in a variety of states.

For example, a KICK may have an attack power of 5, attack low, and have a speed of 3. The opponent has selected a PUNCH, which has an attack power of 3, attacks high, and has a speed of 4. The punch lands before the kick (compare the speed values), so the kick is interrupted, and the punch succeeds. One player takes damage from the punch, and may be placed off balance if the KICK card signifies this; it may have “put off balance if failed due to counter-attack” or similar.

The fighters state may be indicated with a fighter card that can be turned around to represent different states. Standing up indicated normal, tilted clockwise indicates “on the ground”, tilting counter-clockwise indicates “off balance” and upside down indicates… Falling, on fire, underwater… I don’t know.

Once one turn is resolved, both players flip over the next card, and continue. Once the last card is flipped, players lay down another set of cards. Depending on some variable, the fight either continues from the last move as a fluid motion, or both players return to their normal state and then formulate another attack and begin again.

There is some mechanism for being able to see what move someone is about to execute, and swap your own moves around accordingly, and different characters have special abilities, etc. All that boring stuff. Also, certain moves flow into each other more fluidly, so that, say, a roundhouse kick flows into another roundhouse fairly easily, and the speed of the second kick is increased. Or, there may be moves that increase in power while the player is in different states, or change into another move entirely when the player’s state is altered. For example, a parry that will put someone off balance if they attack high may put someone on the ground if they’re already off balance at this point, and do a point of damage.

All very interesting back and forth, but not a lot of fun without a prototype.