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.