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Presentation for Friday the 17th (last class)

Game proposal and prototype incorporated in 20 minutes presentation

Create own game (lego)

In class, we were to create our own lego game, and share it with another classmate, discussing the difficulty and gameplay each sets of stage presents.

Google Sketchup Exercise

The mission
File photos of the rescue mission of saving the girl.
view from the jungle

close up

Twins leaving the house

Top down view

Camera angles showing different scene development.

Include one top down view.

Hero Machine

Below are the three characters that I came up with using the Hero Machine online.

Sere has overcame adversity and now has dedicated his life to save lives and protect the good from the evil. His green skin is the result of his healed infection, which he has struggled through for ten years of his life.


Poi learned the hard way about having a positive attitude and treating people with respect and love. His upbringing has been rough, having gone through many struggles. His loyalty is to Sere who has helped him see the light and become a better citizen he is today.

Moni is in the search of her self, her existence. She doesn't know who she is, waking up in the middle of the desert, with no knowledge or recollection of her previous existence. Nobody knows who she is.

Garage Band

Using the Garage Band application, we learned to compose music to get a feel on how easy or difficult music can be composed for game use. Before, we watched a talk online with Brian Eno and Will Wright on the development of music and game.

While trying to compose music from a variety of preset instruments in Garage Band, I kept in mind Brian Eno's words of wisdom. Music should be simply composed for listening ease.

I tend to gravitate towards orchestras, because of the soothing sounds. My finished product is entitled sad orchestra . This piece can be used during a tragic event in a video game.

Sound Exercise

Assignment: To create a soundtrack that tells a story. Using the program Audacity, we combined sound clips from www.freesound.org to conjure up a narrative that can be used in our video game.

At first I didn't have an idea, but after downloading several clips, I came up with a believable scenario where a man is sleeping with his cat.

An example of a game with great use of sound is Borderlands, as posted on the student blogs.

Cultural Issues Essay: Final Fantasy III

I didn't realize in my childhood, but now I see how the role playing game Final Fantasy VI (Japanese version) a.k.a. Final Fantasy III (American version), has shaped my preferences in life. In the past, I spent many hours playing this game throughout different periods of my childhood, from elementary school age to the high school years of puberty. I even played it on an emulator for a few weeks in college with major cheats, but that wasn’t the same. The total number of hours spent playing, more likely tallies to more hours than all other game played or even the number of hours spent on K-12 homework. What a great game!

One of the main reasons why I couldn't stop playing this game was because I developed a relationship with these fictional characters, which varied depending on my mood. They each had their own unique scenario/story shaped by their unsolved past, mistakes or evil doings of the Imperial army and later, the villain, Kefka. Many of the character's stories included betrayal, loss, desire and/or the need to rediscover their spirits after enduring major hardships. As a player, I wanted to help them succeed since I felt connected to their story and couldn't turn away until something was solved. Somehow I can relate to some of these hardships, although not to the same extreme, but still on a similar emotional level.

The characters in the story especially had an emotional appeal since I had spent so many hours controlling, upgrading and following these characters in their adventure and interactions with others. I began to feel for the characters in their interactions and always had a reaction to events that happen with them, both negatively and positively. When the characters were sad, I felt sad and when the characters encountered someone evil, I felt tense, as did the fictional character. A lot of the emotions came with the music and events in the story.

Final Fantasy III has the best combination of music and game play, which enhances the overall gaming experience. Each character has a theme song, which was composed in a sad, yet heroic type of tune. This combination of music with the tragic moments in the story enhances the game play especially one that is mainly narrative like this role-playing game. Each theme song matched nicely with each character perfectly, which further brings out their character and personality to the story’s effect. I actually switched favorite characters many times and end up cycling through almost all of them on the basis of their theme song. I especially love the ending where the composer Nobuo Uematsu combined each character's theme song into one masterpiece, which flowed nicely and was absolutely brilliant for the timing of the game.

One of the most emotional parts of the game, which most people remember, is the suicide attempt of Celes. Celes, one of the main characters of the story, tried to commit suicide when the last person on earth, her guardian, died and she had finally lost all hope. She tried to jump off the mountain as she spoke negatively while her theme song played. Luckily, her suicidal attempt failed and at that moment, noticed a bandana on a carrier pigeon, which belonged to her close friend. She realized that her friends were still alive and she had to look for them. Her theme song that played while she jumped off the mountain, along with her suicidal words, felt extremely sad and I always get teary-eyed and on the verge of crying, every time I play it. The power of words and music can really shape a character in a game, which was portrayed strongly for each character in this game. With the diversity of characters in the game, I somehow felt included.

This game filled the void of not having many friends growing up before college. I wasn't part of any clique and was considered a loner and socially awkward since I didn’t talk much. Playing this game, I encountered many things that I wouldn’t have experienced in real life. One of them is feeling I actually have friends and perceived human interaction. This game had many opportunities of adventure with different fictional people who I thought were awesome. An airship was the game's "main street" and all the characters congregated there while a party of up to four would venture out to fulfill a quest. Having the freedom to pick and choose any four characters was very liberating and felt like these fictional friends trusted my decisions. When you talk to each character, they usually had something positive to say that would encourage the player to keep on rolling while staying in character themselves, so it felt realistic.

The main lesson that stuck with me is that everyone is important as individuals and the interactions we have with others can greatly shape lives, but it is up to us to decide which choices to make and what we want to happen. There are many consequences in the way we play the game and in life. Deciding on unwise choices will definitely waste time and create negativity in our lives. I try to live my life to promote positivity and equality with all living creatures.

Final Fantasy III also showed me that loners and misfits have an important part to play in the overall scheme of life. In this game there was no stereotypical hero that was clearly identified for us, which takes out the idea that the single hero will get all the praise despite it being a group effort while others perceived not as important take the backseat or end up dead. Even watching American movies and film, the hero is someone who I couldn’t relate to physically, because I don’t identify with them. Most of the films, I relate more to the one who got killed or the one who wasn’t as outspoken as the bossy protagonist. This game, on the other hand, has equality, which many people from different backgrounds can relate to since there is that diversity of characters and the freedom to choose which character(s) to improve on.

In this game, the characters were created equal. They were presented to us with two or three main characters that helped carry the story, but since the game composed of more hours concentrating on each character’s side quests and stories, the level of equality among the characters was about the same. The character’s theme songs were also evenly played throughout the story, which suggests the fairness and time devoted to the characters. This gaming experience has definitely taught me that everyone is equal despite other forms of media saying otherwise. Now, I use Final Fantasy III as a tool of comparison in judging other forms of media.

Final Fantasy III has always been a comparison tool for other Final Fantasy series games and other media. Considering the story, the character development and level of simplicity that went into user interface for the equipment and battles, I feel that Final Fantasy III is still the best of them all, despite newer versions with better graphics and similar interfaces. I would choose this 8-bit game over any new 3D game anytime unless they did a 3D remake.

This game offered a lot of freedom that hasn’t been found in any other game I played. The freedom of collecting and conquering side quests and items was definitely a plus in this game. The second part of the game has major flexibility in the conquest of the game. Tons of optional side quests are available in any order to recover all the missing characters as well as weapons, armors, relics and espers (magic) to discover.

The amount of time spent improving our favorite character empowers us to develop our wants and desires that we wouldn't otherwise fulfill in life. We as people always project ourselves onto other people/things even without knowing it. Our values and desires shape the way we make decisions and this can definitely affect how we play an RPG, which has many decisions to make. The freedom to pick and choose which characters and what events we want to achieve is really an outlet for us to carry out those desires that we wouldn't normal express outside the gaming world.



Final Fantasy is also used to help me compare activities such as viewing TV, sports, arts and movies. Many of the things I look for in different types of entertainment media is the level of character and story development that Final Fantasy III had plenty of. That is, how much of the music and script can evoke an emotional response out of people and make them believe what they are seeing is real.

Today, watching youtube videos of the game play really brings back memories, emotions and much carefree life. I feel nostalgic and feel like I am part of a community every time I read the many youtube comments of people who will always love this game. The shared positive emotion within this online community touches my heart every time.

Final Fantasy will always be an important chapter in my life. It has shaped my preferences in gaming and decisions in life, mainly for the good. I believe there is still a Final Fantasy III hype where everyone still think this game is the most epic of all and no other game has ever came close to it. I am one of those believers.



Tetris Effect: Real or Not?

Opinion

The "Tetris Effect" is real. I think it's simplicity is the main reason why people get hooked on this game. It doesn't require major thinking, but requires tons of concentration, which can get people immersed in this world, hence the Tetris Effect. The game gets the mind working and helps the mind to stay healthy and active, which makes people more aware, alert and possibly smarter.

When I heard that Tetris could fulfill a fundamental human desire, I couldn't agree more. People want to put order to chaos and this game gets people engaged as they create thoughts and patterns to end the chaos that is happening. In conclusion, a game that gets people thinking and engaged is definitely one to have a huge effect on the human mind and its very real.

Tetris: Game Evaluation

Tetris was played in class today for an hour. Our highest score was screen captured and posted on our blogs. My high score came on my 4th try out of 6.

Student Name: Matthew Fung

Today’s Date: 10/29/10

Game Title Examined: Tetris

Year of Publication: 1984

Game Publisher: Nintendo and more.

Game Developer: Alexey Pajiitnov

Game Genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero):
Puzzle

Type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

Puzzle - one screen - blocks coming down.

Perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character.
1D

Gameplay – what does the player have to do?
Player has to change the direction of the different blocks to create rows that'll disappear when row is full.

Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) describe.
Yes, pressing the buttons will change the direction of the block and when the screen gets full, the player loses.

Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)
I feel like gameplay is random but I heard some people say it's patterned.

King of Kong: Fistfull of Quarters

Watched King of Kong: Fistfull of Quarters on youtube.com

Short Essay Responses

1. Core gamers, not just Mitchell, more likely will have the need to play and win at all costs to feel accomplished. The value to win is the most important thing in the world for core gamers and as a game designer, it is important to design games which will bring players back for years to come especially core gamers. This will make it a great game.

2. Core gamers always want to become on top and better than everyone else. Maybe in the context of what Nicole, Wiebe's wife, was saying about Weibe coming up short is true for the gaming world. But it sounds like she has very high expectations for him, so she wants him to succeed in everything he does, but sees that he doesn't come up on top in any of those fields.

Having a self esteem that is too high or too low can be beneficial to competitive gaming such as vintage or class game playing. Mitchell was one with high self esteem while Wieber had low. When a gamer is balanced, I would think that they have a life outside of gaming and isn't considered hard-core gamer.

The relationship between low self-esteem and videogame mastery is complementary. Self-esteem increases when the player wins or succeeds at accomplishing a certain task or difficult battle. These players will play until they feel like they've accomplished something and feel on top. Part of the game industry wouldn't be as successfully without gamers with low self esteem. Games increase people's thinking while people will get better at the gameplay.

3. This film is accurate on depicting gamers and the western civilization in wanting to be number one and getting there at any cost. The film did a very good job on showing how gamers would put someone down just to reach a goal even if it was your own son crying for attention and obviously choosing the game over the child's needs. And of course, Billy's minions protecting him from a confrontation with Weibee.

The quote from Rolling Stone reflects the change in the way American's think. Rather than working competitively, more people will work cooperatively to achieve a goal.

4. An organization like Twin Galaxies is important in the vintage gaming community because it is a large history of how gaming came to be and has a retained a period of time reflecting it's technology in gaming. Vintage gaming thrives on high scores and competitiveness, which can be carried onto future generations as a genre of gaming.

Communities could exist without such organization for games like today, but it works better with the vintage gaming since these are more face-to-face in the arcades when online technology wasn't out yet. People are becoming lazier as technology helps them do less physically, so having an online community would benefit people today.

Twin Galaxies is an official and agreed upon organization that determines whether or not individuals deserve to be number one. The whole point of this documentary was to have a new guy be recognized by Twin Galaxies as the best, yet wasn't recognized because of biased and intimidation with the title holder since 1985.

5. Eye-Hand coordination ultimately determines how fast, agile and smart your physical and mental capacities can function. So if one is good at a task such as the speed and skills with basketball, then with practice, one can also achieve mastery quickly at another task such as playing a game like Donkey Kong.

I like to organize things and match things in certain catagories, so I excel in puzzle games such as bejeweled or Puzzle Fighter that requires time and quickness as opposed to pressing different buttons simultaneously or in a quick and accurate sequence to perform.

6. Gordon, and I assume like most of the viewers of the documentary, can read through Mitchell and see that everything he has said doesn't necessarily match up with what he does. Mitchell will say things, which will alleviate some drama at the moment or say things that sound noble and right, but will do things opposite and different later. Rinse and repeat.

In the videogame culture, such as this documentary, I noticed that people who are around others who want to coverup (Mitchell), tend to act in similar and backhanded fashion. People like Wiebe, who are honest and just want to win fair and square tend to attract others who are like him. I noticed that Mitchell's minions changed their tone close to end of the film when they saw Wiebe as a deserving and honest person rather than a threat.

7. This documentary isn't about Donkey Kong or getting the high score. It's about how people view themselves and others around them in a competitive environment. Most people who want to get the high score seek fame, recognition and attention. Those who want to be on top view the one on top as someone to look up to and worship and possibly to protect.

Animal instinct plays a huge role in how people interact in a competitive setting. Who is alpha male and who is threatened when someone new can possibly take over as the new alpha male?

8. I played Donkey Kong a long time ago and I stopped because it was too hard and I wasn't too persistent on winning at this game. It was on the NES and I was 9 or 10 years old. I remember I couldn't get passed the elevators and I played Duck Hunt instead, but even then, I cheated by putting the gun right in front of the screen and hitting the screen a couple of times while shooting.

Doom Evaluation

Doom
Drawing of Stage One Map.
What are Weenies?
Guide players around the level.
Enhanced Weenies and encountering player movement
Open areas with "natural" lighting, Interesting colored fields
Using lighting to encourage player movement

Light illuminates the outside from the dark inside. Shiny objects/items attract players to obtain.

Posters

Alternative Maps & Posters

Hidden doorways that may not appear on the regular map unless special events trigger.

Presented Path & Posters

Main route to completing level

Presented Path vs. Exploration

Many areas have hidden pathways and dynamic level system, which adds another dimension to the gameplay. Map may appear flat but the height may vary and may lead the player to another part of the level on a different plane.

The Power of the Path - the illusion of Freedom

Openness of proceeding to the next level. The ability to heal and prepare for the slaughter of monsters with the known risk of possible death.

Rediscovering Rewards

Known items such as the armor or healing potions reward players as well as heals them to advance to the upcoming onslaught. Rediscovering them may reward players with the needed help.

Thematic Level Goals

Moral Story Telling

Lesson of Main Street

Don't get too crazy and heal when needed otherwise death will be upon us.

Level Items

Armor which increases the resistance of enemy attack as well as potions to recover hit points lost.

Thematic Level Goals

Illusional Narrative

The environment may tell a story about what may happen next.

Adding Danger

Applying it All

Warning/Foreshadowing

Noises in the distance and blood and corpses on the background

Maximizing the Path

Storytelling through Environment

The blood, gore and corpses are part of the background, which tell a story of danger and evil lurking in the environment.

Implied Threats

Map and Discovered Information

Some portions of the map reveal a path that we are curious to explore and we try to get to that room by figuring out the secret pathway or event that may trigger it.

Building Anticipation

Music quiets down while walking in a narrow or seemingly empty corridor expecting something to attack.

Weenies and Foreshadowing

Juxtaposing Interior and Exterior Spacellusional Narrative

Path may lead to different levels of the field while others are on the same plane such as the door that leads to another room.

The Clear Path Out

Call of Duty 4: Modern War Fare Evaluation

Applying Scott Rogers's ideasto game evaluation: Modern War Fare - XBOX 360
TOPICS:

What the heck are Weenies?
Guides to get player to follow the path

Enhanced Weenies and encountering player movement
NPC allies leading the way as well as the straight forward path of gunshots and explosions in the distance which naturally draws the player to participate.

Using lighting to encourage player movement
Coming from a dark stairway to a well-lit room attracts the players to explore.

Posters
Foreshadows the enemy behaviors and reinforces the opposing beliefs of the enemy.

Alternative Maps & Posters

Presented Path & Posters

Presented Path vs. Exploration
Many narrowed paths ended up to the next destination, whereas open space such as a room left us wandering around curious to see what could be retrieved such as an item or admiring the artwork.

The Power of the Path - the illusion of Freedom

Rediscovering Rewards
New guns, special graphics

Thematic Level Goals
Environmental changes and weenies engage the player

Moral Story Telling
After each death, a quote appears that may influence the player's gameplay.

Lesson of Main Street
Behind walls and crates or any protection serves as a mini main street

Level Items
Gun enhancements

Thematic Level Goals

Illusional Narrative
The act going from building to building, area to area creates a narrative that can be made up by the player since there are so many different buildings and areas.

Adding Danger
More enemies shooting at different positions, unexpected areas.

Applying it All

Warning/Foreshadowing
Talking and machines operating heard in the distance

Maximizing the Path

Storytelling through Environment
The environment is dangerous with objects and background having beat up, dilapidated and ruined qualities.

Implied Threats
The environment displays objects which implies that it can cause damage to life.

The Tutorial Section
controls are able to be set up.

Map and Discovered Information
the sound of gun shots in the distance signal more battle is imminent.

Weenies and Foreshadowing
new design of buildings and vehicles attract attention.

Juxtaposing Interior and Exterior Space
The act of exiting and entering the room creates the

Illusional Narrative

The Clear Path Out

Game Ideas from Scott Rogers: Grand Theft Auto

Applying Scott Rogers's ideas to game evaluation: Grand Theft Auto IV - PS3

What are Weenies?
Guide players around the level.

Enhanced Weenies and encountering player movement

Cars to speed up the gameplay/ adds another dimension of gameplay as opposed to running.

Using lighting to encourage player movement

At night time, lights illuminate where player should go

Posters

Foreshadows danger or upcoming events

Alternative Maps & Posters

Global Map which can tell us if we are still in police persute, gps in showing us where to go.

Presented Path & Posters

Mimic realism such as food posters at restaurants

Presented Path vs. Exploration

Maps can provide us with the option of direct path to next goal or just exploration

The Power of the Path - the illusion of Freedom

Area is very open to walk and driving in the streets or sidewalks, which doesn't reflect

Rediscovering Rewards

Money from beating up people

Thematic Level Goals

1)Do the mission

2)Find a girl

3)Run from the police

Moral Story Telling

Don't piss off the police.

Lesson of Main Street

Specific places in the game allow you to do other things besides run from the police or steal from people.

Level Items

Hand gun, vehicles, money from people that we have the option of beating up.

Thematic Level Goals

Depending on mission, we have different goals

Illusional Narrative

Adding Danger

Police chases, Other people trying to beat you up

Applying it All

Warning/Foreshadowing

Dangerous Mission, cut scene foreshadow

Maximizing the Path

Storytelling through Environment

Society seems intact and our character makes up the story with whatever we decide to do. Some parts of the city seemed dangerous.

Implied Threats
cut scenes explicitly interacts with character.

The Tutorial Section

none

Map and Discovered Information

small navigation map for every level.

Building Anticipation

possible police chase

Weenies and Foreshadowing
large isolated buildings

Juxtaposing Interior and Exterior Space

character is able to navigate in and out of certain buildings such as his apartment.

Illusional Narrative

The Clear Path Out

PInball Evaluation

Assignment:

Play at least three pinball games and evaluate.

Copy screen (cmd+shift+4) the pinball game and highlight the main elements of the game using Photoshop layers. Save, post on blog and evaluate.

All pinball games evaluated are from http://www.onlinepinball.net/

Jurassic Pinball

What is good game play when it comes to pinball design?

Good game play consists of fair gameplay, not too hard and not too easy. Of the three pinball games I evaluated, 4D Pinball was very easy because the flippers were large and the ball didn't seem to go that fast compared to Jurassic Pinball, which was the most difficult of the three.

This makes Theme Park Pinball the fairest, but not necessarily the funnest. The images and theme of the game has a strong influence on the level of game play, fun and commitment depending on the person. All of these games I chose because they had some level of interest judging from the outside. I like dinosaurs, theme parks and was intrigued by the name 4D. I would say that I felt misled by theme parks and 4D because I wasn't expecting a circus or Christmas/Winter season. I was expecting more roller coasters and a more interesting 4D experience. I know from experience that even if the game play is objectively fun, people wouldn't play just from the images used.

Having the game provide visual feedback when we score adds to the overall good gameplay. Feedback such as lights and movement within the playfield would keep the players engaged and alert. The game must also makes sense and flow as one harmonious theme. Gimmicks may help depending on the theme. Everything must make sense, from the text and fonts to the way things are portrayed on the field.

Watching the documentary on Pinball, I found that the 3D pinball game was very interesting to me and I wanted to play it. They showed an elephant moving the ball onto a higher level of routes, which I thought was superb.

Themepark Pinball

How do pinball playfield designers create exciting experiences?

Designers create an exciting experience by creating themes for the games, which can entice people to initiate play. The playfield items must match the theme and not just have one background picture like Jurassic Pinball, which had a T-Rex as the background with random star obstacles that has absolutely nothing to do with the theme of dinosaurs. I would have created more references from the Jurassic period to incorporate into the overall theme. Theme Park Pinball should have more loops to match the roller coaster theme that most amusement parks have.

4D Pinball

US vs It

We start out with 4 tanks and one robot.

Robots moves are as follows:

1)Laser

2)Forward

3)Left - 90 degrees

4)Laser

5)Rotate - 180 degrees

6)Right

7)Laser

8)Left - 90 degress

9)Fist

10)Forward

Robot start facing goal line, 4 tanks start at goal line.

Place tanks next to each corner square at goal line with 2 empty squares at middle of goal line.

Robot goes first and then each other tanks move. The strategy is to have the three tanks surround the robot on the tank's side of the board while the fourth tank goes around the robot out of laser's range and approach the robot from behind. Just as the robot destroys the three tanks at close range, the fourth tanks follows from behind and will shoot at close range.

When the robot slowly inches his way to the goal line, he is destroyed by the tank in a close range attack. In a self destruct mode when the robot reaches 0 life points, he deals enough damage to destroy the fourth tank, ending in a dramatic scene where nobody survives.

league of legends

Game Proposal

Title: Street Delirium

Gameplay mode

There are two modes of gameplay: single and multiplayer. Single player gameplay is available in the story and battle mode, including the option of selecting an AI partners or having a second player. Story mode follows a set of stages with dialogue from the characters and events happening with an ending. Battle mode is the selection of stages from any number of players up to four. Battle mode is also customizable in time, items and number of players.

In story and battle mode, the board size corresponds to the number of players, so the more players whether it is AI or human, the bigger the board. All players in story mode are on the same side of the street while player placement is open in battle mode, which means that there are always two teams against each other. Up to four players can participate in battle mode, AI or human, whereas story mode only allows two playable characters.

In each battle level, each player must catch the ball or prevent the ball from passing the player similar to the role of the goalie in soccer. As soon as the ball passes beyond the player or isn’t able to catch the ball, that player will receive a point added to their current score, which isn’t good if you want to win. Scores are only kept when consecutive wins are performed. As soon as the consecutive winning streak is broken, the points counter will reset to zero. An exception to the rule is when the score is greater than five, in which case, is reset to five instead of zero. When a player reaches ten points and isn’t able to catch the ball in ten consecutive turns, that player loses. To beat an opponent, ten consecutive scores without any breaks in the streaks will qualify for a win. When an opponent’s score is at five, it will take more five consecutive scores to beat the opponent.

In this game, obtaining points are bad because the losing condition is that the first team to reach ten points will lose that round. Each level can be either played with best out of three or best out of five rounds with an optional time limit.

With the time limit option, the last 30 seconds will start the sudden death event, where all the obstacles clear the middle, leaving only the players going head to head like Pong, but with only one point to win.

Each level also includes power ups which obviously adds to the menace and craze to the competition. The standard power ups are shown below, but as mentioned earlier, each stage has their unique power ups specific events that can be triggered in their level. The typical power up last about 30 seconds and should be used wisely because timing is everything and may cost a player a winning streak if not used to take advantage of the level.

These are several examples of power up balls which enhances the quality of battle. For example, by using the standard curve ball power up at the right moment may trick the opponent into thinking that an obstacle may block the ball, but in fact will go around the obstacle and score. The diverse range of power ups make the game play very engaging since strategy plays a big role in determining the outcome.

Target Audience

Street Delirium’s target audience is rated G, for everyone who likes a multi player games with subtle educational flavor. Graphics are both cartoonish with a hint of realistic quality with no violence, gore or adult material. This game may also attract people who enjoy culture from around the world, since all levels include different aspects from different cultures including speech, language, character and special events.

This picture shows the battle scene in the San Francisco level, which includes special events such as the Gay Pride parade, cable cars, critical mass, Bay to Breakers and typical protests ranging from hotel labor union strikes to human rights. A move that can be obtained from an item specific to the San Francisco level is called “Golden Gate Bridge”, which can override any obstacle and gets the ball directly to the opponent.

Platform

Wii would the perfect platform to start. The standard avatars provided by Mii are used for the gameplay. These Mii’s are already customized and Street Delirium can customize each character even further with added clothing options appropriate for the Mii characters to participate for different level. In story mode, some characters will be default.

Camera mode

During the battle levels, the camera angle will mainly be bird’s eye view from the 1^st player side on the bottom facing opponent or 3^rd and 4^th player facing the camera. Similar to Wii Sports, the camera angle changes into a dynamic slow motion replay of the win. When some special events are triggered, certain items or events may cause the camera to go into an over the shoulder shot, pan across or worm’s eye view, which adds to the look of the special effect.

Genre

Street Delirium is a sports game, but not considered to be real sports.

Characters

Each player can choose their own avatar and up to four players can participate. The story provides four generic characters to start, but will be switched to the selected avatar of players choice when the game starts. Each player is a customizable character provided by Wii. Other characters in the game include 31 different NPC opponents, which equals to about 30 levels in addition to a final boss. Some of the characters created by Mii can be substituted for NPC bosses. Obstacles and background characters are abundant but look similar to each other with slight changes according the level.

Typical level

Each level is a battle screen, bird’s eye view, vertically facing opponent with obstacles moving between them. Since the game takes place on the streets, the usual obstacles are cars, bikes, people and one or more interesting events and items specific to each level. Although the gameplay is similar in every level, the environment and obstacle animation gives each level a different feel to match their level/destination.

This stage shows the Shanghai battle stage, which includes features such as the Lion Dancing and the type of transportation that is tradition in China. Sometimes, when obstacles pass by or gets hit by a ball, they may say a phrase or a word in their language to make the game more educational and dynamic.

User interface

During battle, each player has a side bar which displays the number of items, up to three, collected and shows status on points obtained. On the Wii, these items are accessible with the arrow buttons with the A button being the selector. When two players share the same boundary, they share the item and can only be used once.

The same side interface can be accessed in the global map view except with the save, load, and menu option instead of the items. On the global map, the stage selection is similar to the global map provided from the game Elite Beat Agent, where the globe can be rotated with selectable stages during certain levels of the game. The user would use the Wii controller to point at the screen to navigate the globe with an arrow pointing at the destination. As the levels are being hovered over, the levels will be animated with a voice over to get the player to choose that level.

Story

Once upon a time, four very good friends decide to head down to the shopping mall food court to meet for lunch. On the way they find four rings sitting in the middle of the busy sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. People seem to be oblivious to the shiny stones, but the glow seems to draw the friends into its light. Hesitantly, they look at each other and put the rings on. Nothing instant happens, but then the world around them starts to shake and transforms into an opaque version of reality with people still walking around them like nothing has happened. They see four strange looking men and women standing at the other side of the street, and then suddenly increased traffic appears on the street. Amidst the traffic, a ball suddenly comes between a gap in traffic from across the street and the main character catches it. The game begins.

Above shows the four rings that the four friends put on. Their transformations are generic to the introduction screen, but will be customizable on top of the Mii characters created by each player.

Game Proposal Document

1500 word document that illustrates my game proposal.

Brain Warp

Draw inspiration drawn from famous artist and composer to develop a quick game concept.

Here is the link to powerpoint presentation.

Street Ball

Game Idea
Write a high concept statement: a few sentences that give a general flavor of the game. You can make references to other games, movies, book, or any other media if your game contains simlar characters actions or ideas.
Players travel the world competing against others in the World series game of Street Ball.

What is the player’s role? Is the player pretending to be someone or something, and if so what? Is there more than one? How does the player’s role help to define the gameplay?

The player represents a person in the story who participates in each Street Ball game. So, each player is basically an avatar in the battle screen. Up to four players/avatars are possible. The number of players define the gameplay since human interaction is different from playing against AI. In single player mode, the player may choose to have an AI partner, ranging from easy to hard difficulty.

Does the game have an avatar or other key character? Describe him/her/it.

The game has a wide array of avatars, which can be chosen at the beginning of the game and used till the end. Each avatar selection has catagories such as name, gender, hair, skin, and clothing options.

What is the nature of the gameplay, in general terms? What kinds of challenges will the player face? What kinds of actions will the player take to overcome them?

The battle screen is similar to Bomberman, but the set up is like tennis seen from a bird's eye view. The travelers can only move behind the border line.

What is the player’s interaction model? Omnipresent? Through an avatar? Something else? Some combination?

What is the game’s primary camera model? How will the player view the game’s world on the screen? Will there be more than one perspective?

The primary camera mode is bird's eye view. Replays and other special sequences will have different more than one perspective.

Does the game fall into an existing genre? If so, which one?

This game would be considered sports, however, it doesn't fall into the same subcategory as NFL games.

Is the game competitive, cooperative, team-based or single player? If multiple players are allowed are they using the same machine with separate controls or different machines over a network?

This game can be played as competitive, cooperative, team-based or single player depending on the mode. In battle mode, up to four players can play competitively or team-based while in story mode, only cooperative, team-based or single player mode can be chosen. Player(s) will chose at the beginning of the game and will continue till the end.

Why would anyone want to play this game? Who is the game’s target audience? What characteristics distinguish them from the mass of players in general?

This game's target audience would be people who are interested in playing a multiplayer entertaining game. The character graphics will be shortened cartoon-like characters similar to the avatars in Wii but with a little more realistic with lighting to add depth. The same population of players who like Wii would most likely gravitate towards this game. Although it is intended for everyone.

What machine or machines is the game intended to run on? Can it make use of or will it require any particular hardware such as dance mats or a camera?

This game is intented to run on Wii and Nintendo DS. The Wii would be a perfect game console for this game because Wii has the remote which has a diverse range of motion.The Nintendo DS version would have the touch screen which would bring another dimension of game play to the game.

What is the game’s setting? Where does it take place?

The game's setting would take place on different boards, with the main menu as a global map showing where the boards are located. Ballers (players) will start in America and advance to different parts of the world as the game progresses in difficulty, level and challenges.

Will the game be broken into levels? What might be the victory condition for a typical level?

Yes. The game is primarily based on finishing levels, each getting progressively more challenging than the next. Each level has a victory condition, which is to be the first team to score 10 points.

Does the game have a narrative or story as it goes along? Summarize the plot in a sentence or two.

The game does a narrative, depending on how many players decide to play. Baller(s) embark on a journey to different parts of the world in order to beat the best of the best and become the greatest baller on record.

Play Ball!

Create competitive game for 2 players and a ball that doesn't involve kicking or throwing it.

Rollie Pollie Infestation War

Objective: Obtain 10 consecutive rollie pollie infestation turns without hitting any obstacles to fully infest your opponent's property and win!

game play: Two players start off at opposite sides of the court or street. One with a Rollie Pollie (rubber hand ball) and the other waiting to receive the ball. To start, one player rolls the ball to the other player, avoiding the obstacles, including multiple cars, bikes, domestic animals and people crossing.

sequence: If the rollie pollie hits any obstacle, the turn is forfeited and the other player gets the rollie pollie. If the rollie pollie reaches the other side without hitting any obstacle, that player has a successful infestation and gets another chance to build up their 10 infestation turns while the opposing player is considered infested. After a player has been infested 5 consecutive turns, those become permanent and is considered plagued for the rest of the game and will reset to 5 instead of 0 infested if game hasn't ended yet.

termination: First player to reach 10 infestation turns win.
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Tips to gain more insight into the Gaming World

• spend 20-30 minutes a day reading www.gamasutra.com to better know the industry.

Chess: New and Improved

"Using the chessboard and the types of pieces and moves available in chess, devise a cooperative game of some kind for two people, in which they must work together to achieve a victory condition (You do not need to use the starting conditions of chess, nor all the pieces). Document the rules and the victory condition."

Kingdom Come

Rules:

To start: Two rolls of ponds start at one end of the board with a row an empty roll between them, so the ponds start on rows one and three. Two queens start at the other end of the board at the corners.

Moves: The queens move like the typical queen while the ponds have an added special move which allows them to eat/kill backwards when possible.

Objective: Two available game scenarios are possible. Play as the queens or play as the ponds. Work cooperatively to strategically either 1) eliminate all the ponds (when playing as the queens) 2) eliminate the queens or have at least one pond get to the other side to win (when playing as the ponds).
Two Player vs AI: Each player owns their own roll of ponds or queens, depending on which side is being played. Strategically, discuss with partner the best possible way to stay alive or destroy a piece. Player One goes first, then the second player is next. The AI then takes two moves and the four individual turns starts over again.

Game Creation: Star Wars: Cartoon Network

Visited and created a game with Star Wars: The Clone Wars Game CreatorFilled out evaluation and switch created game with a partner and gave feedback.

A) What options are available to you as a 'game designer'?
Start from Scratch with about 10 templates to choose from. Five categories proceeded with 5-10 options within each to choose from. Tested game and was able to publish if please.

B) How are these options provided?
From a selection of choices within different categories.
C) What types of elements are provided for you to use to 'build' the game?

Elements such as the background preference, characters, number of enemies, goal to win and publish to website.

D) What limits are set on the level of the game play able to be customized
Eraser lets you customize while adding is limited with certain stages.

E) What does the process of using these game creators teach about the notion of the 'difficulty and achievement' balance? Explain using an example from your research.

When designing the map, I didn't really realize how hard I designed it until I played it myself. I played each portion to determine if the difficulty was average.


1) Is the game level fun to play? (be honest!)
Yes
2) If so, why? If not, why not?
Challenging, I died 2 times before winning.
3) What could be done to improve the level?
Decrease the number of power ups.
Email the answers to the above three questions to the student who created the game.

Gamasutra - Articles

Homework: Read three articles from http://www.gamasutra.com/ and link one to blogspot.

Game Producers makes money through advertising more than actual game purchase. -Mafia Wars

Target plans to sell used games.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30099/Target_Launches_Used_Video_Game_Tradein_Service.php

Videogame Cultural Studies Evaluation

In-class Exercise: Play three games on and then use or wikipedia to research the questions for evaluation.

-"the way a video game was made can say a lot about the past culture, just as film"

Game1- Evaluation

TITLE: Pong

YEAR OF PUBLICATION/RELEASE: 1972

GENRE: sports game

USER INTERFACE OF ORIGINAL GAME - JOYSTICK & BUTTON COMBO: gamepad

HOW LONG CAN YOU PLAY BEFORE BEING DEFEATED? 2 minutes

IS GAMEPLAY PATTERNED OR RANDOM? random

PUBLISHER/MANUFACTURER? Atari

ONE PIECE OF HISTORY FROM DOT EATERS ABOUT THIS GAME:

"Though Bushnell wants impossible-for-the-day sound effects like a roaring crowd, Alcorn pulls beeps and blips that are already present in the circuitry for the sound...and when Alcorn describes the noise of the ball hitting the paddles, he inadvertently names the game...PONG" - The Dot Eaters.com

http://www.thedoteaters.com/videos/PCATV_Games.mp4

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Game2 - Evaluation

TITLE: Battlezone

YEAR OF PUBLICATION/RELEASE: 1980

GENRE: first person combat

USER INTERFACE OF ORIGINAL GAME - JOYSTICK & BUTTON COMBO: gamepad - 4 directional buttons and one shooter button

HOW LONG CAN YOU PLAY BEFORE BEING DEFEATED? 3 minutes

IS GAMEPLAY PATTERNED OR RANDOM? random

PUBLISHER/MANUFACTURER? Atari

ONE PIECE OF HISTORY FROM DOT EATERS ABOUT THIS GAME:

"A version called The Bradley Trainer (also known as Army Battlezone or Military Battlezone) was also designed for use by the U.S. Army as targeting training for gunners on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.^[1] Approaching Atari in December 1980, some developers within Atari refused to work on the project because of its association with the Army..." - wikipedia

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Game3 - Evaluation

TITLE: Centipede

YEAR OF PUBLICATION/RELEASE: 1980

GENRE: arcade

USER INTERFACE OF ORIGINAL GAME - JOYSTICK & BUTTON COMBO: gamepad - directional and shoot

HOW LONG CAN YOU PLAY BEFORE BEING DEFEATED? 3 minutes

IS GAMEPLAY PATTERNED OR RANDOM? patterned depending on obstacles created.

PUBLISHER/MANUFACTURER? Atari

ONE PIECE OF HISTORY FROM DOT EATERS ABOUT THIS GAME:

"The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female player base" - wikipedia