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.
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.