Homework 8

Homework 8
Assigned: Thursday Oct. 29, 2015
Due: Friday Nov. 6, 2015

Repeat homework 6, applied to your own team's game. The analysis is individual and done on your blog. Address the following issues:

1) the Tetrad
2) Balance
3) Emergent properties (check the book out)
4) Interest curves (check out the book)
5) Explain the reasons you like or dislike the game and relate this to Game Design issues. 

Put this in your Blog. Each game will count for 50%.  Each of the 5 subtopics will count for 10 points (for each game), for a total of 100 possible points.

Do not forget to state your contributions to your Team's game and what you plan to do in the following week.

The two games that I’m going to compare and contrast for analysis are Destiny, and my groups game Ella Island (temporary name).

1.       The Tetrad: The first comparison that I can make between the two games in regards to the technology used for the game. Both of the games are compatible with next gen graphics for the most part as well as take advantage of a lot of lighting in different scenarios to help project the games design. In Destiny some of the earlier missions in the single player campaign will use lighting to help set the mood for the character, when your first start playing the game one of the first things that is apparent as you walk around an old abandoned rocket launch site is the lighting. The lighting is super eerie, and as you move slowly you can hear the sounds of enemies climbing around the place, yet with it being the first mission in the game the lighting played a big role in almost characterizing the enemies as this mysterious power in the game, and as something to almost be feared as they are projected as being observantly sneaky in the game. In our game we are trying to create a similar feel with lighting in the game as you run around fighting enemies, the lighting can play a role in helping to characterize the enemies as something more than just a movable mesh that you can shoot at. The next part of the game for the Tetrad is mechanics. For destiny the game mechanic for the most part remains pretty simple, where the player basically runs around shooting enemies. That is the basic concept for most shooters, to shoot your enemies, and make it through obstacles of enemies. And that idea of gameplay for the most part, is very entertaining for a lot of people. But the main idea that we are taking from this is the basics of being able to navigate around the area with your character, crouch, jump, and shoot enemies. As well as a sprint to be able to avoid enemy fire and get to cover. As for the story part of the tetrad, the story for destiny at first seemed very lacking, but when you looked at the game as a whole it, would be hard to have one set story line for an MMO esc video game. But that idea of simplicity works well for the future of the game as it is new. Being able to keep the story simple for a game that plans to increase story later works well because it leave room for a lot more lore in the game. The idea for story in my game will be rather simple, as the main character will be trying to travel from area to area, warding off different enemies that are trying to attack her. The aesthetics for my game are going to be very fluid as well as the character can simply travel and shoot, the game focuses more as an arcade type shooter, where the player will have free reign of the control of where they can go. Which aestically is very similar to destiny in a lot of ways. The biggest difference will be camera placement and point of view from both of the game. Where destiny is a first person shooter, our game will be a third person game where the camera is set above the main character facing down.

2.       Balance.

The balance for destiny works very well. The game consists of three different player classes that the player can play from, each with their own abilities and perks for being that class. The classes remain very well balanced in regards that one class is not more overpowered then the other. Each class will deal the same amount of damage, with other variables remaining the same, and each class can be more powerful to use, in some regards against other classes depending on how you set up a talent tree for each character. Our games balance will be centered mostly upon enemy spawns. Balancing the game to where it doesn’t have too many enemies but not too little. Getting the game to be the right level of difficulty, to where be player move faster, the game will be harder, but if they move slowly the game will be easier.

3.       Some emergent properties that appear in destiny that seem vital to the game, is the ability to get armor upgrades. A large part of the game which makes people want to come back to the game, is getting better gear that you can then use to make the gameplay easier in the future. This includes pvp or player versus player combat. For our groups game we plan on having the game have maybe a similar feature, where the character can maybe collect new items or upgrades that the character can then use to make the gameplay easier or help them in fighting back different enemies.

4.       The interest curve for our game will be centered from level to level. The map will start off easy and the gather difficulty the longer you go, up until you get to the boss, which is when the game will peak at interest curve, after the bosses defeat the games rising action will peak and then slowly collapse back down to being low as you start a new level. Destiny does this similarly with each of its missions, as the game will peak interest during boss fights, and then collapse down after their defeat so that you can repeat the process over again.

5.       I like destiny as a game because although I feel like it lacked in story in some areas, it makes up for in fun gameplay that can be repeated a lot. The game succeeds in having challenging bosses that you need to have allies in order to fight, which make the mmo experience of the game much more entertaining and enjoyable. The game design for the game is easy to understand, and is very adaptable for the general public to learn how to play and eventually get better over time the more that the person plays it. Which will hopefully be similar to how our game goes, to where people will enjoy it, and would be interested in coming back to play it more in the future.

As for where I am at with my work that I have put towards our game design over the past week I have been continuing working on my 3d model. I finished several new objects with the character, such as the first layer of clothing, the entire face is now finished, with eyes, eyelids, and eyebrows and also the hands of the character. Currently I am working on the feet for the character, or rather the shoes. Once I am finished with this I will be coloring and texturing the character as well as connect all of the individual objects to gather to make one full object. And then after that I will finish making the clothes for the character and then start the animation, which will be the standard skeleton from the unreal engine.