Game Stories

Week 9 Reading

The first reading is about how stories need a hero and it talks about how myths and old stories have been breed into humans as the people who could convince tribes that the preservation of the tribe was more important than the individuals life is more important than their own would have had the best chance of survival and so these are the genes that would have lasted the longest and we more than likely possess. It talks about how stories give us purpose and without them life would seem pointless. 

The second reading talks about how games are not films and films are not plays. He breaks down how films had to adapt after they started as they were thought to be like plays which we know films obviously aren't, it then talks about how games are different to films but they still need story. It suggests that games without stories attract small crowd and don't really keep an audience which I don't think is really true as games such as Fifa and Call of Duty maintain a huge fan base each yea despite no major story or it not being the main aspect of the game. Also another really good example of this not applying is Fortnite despite it not being everyone's cup of tea you can't deny that it is extremely popular and successful. 

(This is an image of Fortnite taken from Flickr)

Game Fun

Reading Week 7

The first article is Natural Funativity.

This article is all about how it is in our genes to play games. The author talks about how tens of thousands of years ago people would play games to improve their survival skills and in a way that is what we still do to this day. He used the example of a hunter coming home after a successful hunt he has three options go back out to try get more food even though its dangerous, just rest until he starts to run out of food but risk being a bit rusty when he goes out hunting again or in the safety of camp he can practise his survival skills by throwing a rock at a balancing piece of wood. The author talks about to this day we are still affected by what our ancestors done.

The second article is Players who suit MUD's (MMO's).

This article talks about the 4 different reasons people enjoyed a popular MMO years ago and how it can be seen to categorise all gamers effectively. The four different types are Achievers, Explorers, Socialisers and Killers. It talks about how many players will be a bit of all but they mainly are one and do the others to progress there main play style or just based off there mood that day. The article states games can easily die if there is too much or similarly too little of a type as it will hinder other peoples fun. 

(This is a picture of the GTA Online logo as I feel like this is a good representation of the second article, Image taken from WikiMedia)

Game Decisions

Reading Week 6

This week for our reading we read an article about cosy games. The article talks about how to make a cosy game, why people enjoy them and some common misconceptions about what makes a game cosy.

To make a cosy game you need to make it so there are no high priority tasks such as eating to survive or having shelter. This makes a player done something, once this happens a game is no longer. A cosy game has no risks or danger in it, instead of trying to survive you instead try to master a skill, connect with people or just simply explore. 

People enjoy cosy games as they are completely different than most games you'll play where there are set tasks and you are usually at some sort of risk.

Many people think to have a cosy game you just need to make it cute or to have a feeling of safety but this isn't true there are many needs for a cosy game to make it successful. One example of a common misconception people have about cosy games the article talks about is that the whole game needs to be cosy and safe but this isn't true, they make the example that if you have a little cosy reading nook with a window and cold rain is hitting the window because you are safe and the rain is outside the cosy space it actually enhances the feeling of cosiness.

Another article I looked at was Cosy Games Make Winter More Bearable, This article talks about how various aspects of cosy games can make or break them such as the minimalism of it or the use of notifications.

A second article I found interesting was I Love Astroneer For Its Optimism, this article explains how this survival game is actually cosy despite literally suffocating to death at times.

The final article I found interesting was Animal Crossing Helps Me Cope On A Day Like This, this article is wrote by someone who had a hard upbringing as they felt like an outsider in this article they talk about how animal crossing helped them both as a kid and also as an adult to appreciate life and everything around them.

(This is an image from Flickr of Animal Crossing)

 

Game GDD

Reading Week 5

One article I read was Only a Game Roger Caillois Patterns of Play. In this article the author talks about how Roger Caillois broke games and he said there are 4 patterns of play. Competitive, Chance, Simulation or Vertigo, I think this is an interesting concept and cool to think about different games and see where they fit in.

A second article I read was called Conversation, this article talks about how you should go about having conversations with NPCs. I liked this as it got me thinking what kind of conversations I'd like to have in my game, I think as it is an adventure game I will like for the NPCs to give out helpful information so it will be heavily scripted.

The final article I read was The In-Game economics of Ultima Online, I liked the article, it breaks down the basic concept of the game but one bit that made me think was,

 Game designers are therefore frequently confronted with the following dilemma:

1. All elements of the game need to be fun.
2. Much of the real world is not fun.
3. Elements which are unrealistic are often counterintuitive.
4. Counterintuitive rules are difficult to learn and not fun, at least at first

This is good to keep in mind when designing my own game.

For the main reading I think there was a lot of useful information on good design consideration, but I feel like there is also a good amount of information that isn't really transferable from board game to computer game such as include spare parts. Nevertheless I actually think having to root around a lot of information helps you retain the good information more. I will definitely be looking back on this when designing my game as there are a lot of useful tips such as using different colours and shapes to help people who are colour blind differentiate between things easier. 

Image taken from Pixabay, showing some board game pieces

Games MDA

Week 4 Readings

This week our reading was a lot more in depth than before I felt,The first article basically explained MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics). Learning about this stuff although slightly confusing is going to be very useful for making our game,Mechanics of a game are kind of like the rules and affects your dynamics, which is how the game plays and aesthetics are the feelings you want the player to experience while playing your game.

The author gave us some examples of aesthetics which I think will be useful to really categorize our game ideas. Some of them include Fantasy, Discovery, Challenge and Narrative. Knowing how to describe the games in development terms will be useful to look up information on developing them.

The second article was all about intentional playing from players and the mechanics you set up in your game can lead to low or high intentional game play. The author says how he thinks making the player have high intentional playing styles is the best way forward for the gaming industry, he shows us how we can do this and how some games have implemented it both good and poorly. The article it's self was kind of confusing at times but I feel like the overall point was to convey the power that giving players multiply ways of doing things can lead to more enjoyable and long lasting content.

Additional Readings

A look at negative game behavior 

This article talks about the hindrance that is games semi-forcing micro transactions to progress.

The Paper chase saving money via paper prototyping

This article talks about ways to save money prototyping your games. (aimed at real developers I think)

Modelling Conversation Flow: NPCs repeating information

This article talks about ways to deal with NPCs getting asked the same question repeatedly.

 

(An image of Dark Souls Board Game as one article talked about board games influencing video games, image taken from flickr)

Game Elements

Week 3 Readings

This weeks readings was all about learning the vocab needed to communicate effectively as you are building a game. It mainly focused on how we can dissect games to discover how they make us like or dislike them, he showed this by explaining the FADTs of Mario. One example of this is how in Mario you have a certain amount of actions you can do and these actions always available because of this you always know what you can or can't do based on these moves, You can try and jump up to a platform and if you can't reach it you have to do something else. 

They also talk about how you can mix FADTs to achieve the kind of game you want. For example if you are making a free flowing sports game you can't create your own story, as the players actions are what really defines the story, i.e the player can't be winning a game 5-nil and then you make them take a peno which decides if they win or not as it doesn't make any sense. So therefore if you are making a free flowing sports game you won't rely on story to much but more so on stuff like Intention, i.e you want to win as much as possible and Consequence, i.e when you press a button you know what will happen.

I found the reading really interesting especially reading his analysis of super Mario. I liked how he broke Mario down and explained what made it likable and what not. Also reading his analysis of Mario and seeing how he broke it down seems like it will come in handy in future game development as I feel like I could look at games I really like and be able to deconstruct them and figure out why i like them and how to use that in games I make. 

(Image taken from Devaintart, Mario 64 Logo)

Game Design

I thought the reading was interesting, I didn't realise we were suppose to only spend 30 minutes reading them all so I didn't 30 minutes reading through the first article then I spent an additional 15 minutes reading one of the articles from the second section.

The first article I read was don't be a vidiot and I feel like this article has an awful lot of nothingness in it, the introduction where it explained how you really need to open your mind when you want to be a game developer and have an every growing collection of games digital and not that you have played as it makes sense you will be more inclined to base it off what you know. However I feel like he definitely spent too much time talking about board games, maybe it's just me but i thought he talked about political stuff like how Hasbro took over everything to much.

The second article I read was so you're going to make a game for the first time. I found this article had a lot of useful tips, I definitely would have feel into a lot of the traps she talked about such as overreaching as I've been trying to think of a creative idea for my game since our first lecture.


Overall I thought the readings where good as it definitely gets you thinking but I feel like the first one went on a bit much.

(Picture of a dog "reading" taken from Flickr)