EdJZ's Blog for cs4431

Journal Wk10: Improv

z3217492 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:25:54 +0000

The way that improvisation is used to promote self-expression is done differently depending if the game is single player or multiplayer.
Multiplayer games will tend to make people earn resources to express themselves with because having people around to show off to increases the desire to show off. These things would be special looking armour, armour with high stats or titles. Other games will also make players purchase cosmetic armour which players may use to express themselves with they customize their avatar.
Balanced RTS games also allow players to express themselves in a lesser way, because the players may choose certain races because they like it or choose to build certain units or follow certain strategies. People who play RTS games often will have some particular play style that they will use more often which will reflect the types of people they are or the type of victory they enjoy or the types of games they have previously enjoyed. For example in warcraftIII players who play many RPGs will probrably choose to level their heroes and use them as their main attack, some players will choose to defend themselves first with towers, others will build losts of small units hoping to overpower opponents with numbers. These things all reflect something about the person playing. Often these choices are chosen on the fly – Improvised. In an MMORPG, the way the players avatar looks will depend on what the player currently has on hand the titles, weapons and armour are based on what the player can achieve in that point in time and so the player makes a quick decision. In RTS games the player needs to react quickly to what the opponent is doing and often the player will have a number of options and will choose on the fly how to counter the opponent – the player improvises the counter strategy. Similarly for FPS games the gun you choose to use depends on what others are using, or what the player happens to pick up. The player may choose if they want a particular gun, etc

Single player games are different in that when the player expresses him/herself in a game, the only other person who really sees the result is the player. In choose your own adventure dating simulation type games the player may choose which path to take or which girl to woo. In RPG games like Baldurs Gate or Fallout 3, the player is given the option to customise the avatar and choose skills based on how the player wants to play the game. Choices such as skills directly affects how the player plays the game and so the dynamics and aesthetics experienced by the player will differ depending on these choices. Eg if the player chooses to be a Tanky character or a Quick character who would probrably die quickly if he ever got hit. Improvisation plays less of a role, because often single player games give players an option to save frequently, so if a particular path does not favour the player they will probrably load and try again. As such most games do not implement as many improvised choices, because they know the players won’t really improvise. Ways to actually make it work would be to ensure the optimal outcome has an really low chance of happening, such as shiny pokemon in the game pokemon. Some people will still be anal and do the save-load, but most sane people won’t. Another option would be to prevent the player from saving before a crucial decision, for example after a particularly hard boss fight. Another way would be to make the player choose something, even if they are trivial choices, very often, then sane players would not bother saving after each choice. Most people are sane… As such using methods of innovation, where players need to do things on-the-fly and will be forced to choose quickly allows the players to express themselves more honestly due to the lack of multiple attempts. Similar to the improv game, where the player can’t take back the actions they make.

RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/journal-wk10-improv/

Design Idea Wk10: Art game

z3217492 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:39:07 +0000

Team art game.
The game is played with two teams. The teams need to have more than one person in each, and both teams need to have the same number of people.

There will be a stop-watch like device on the table which will time 10 seconds and ring unless the button on the top is pressed in time. The device does not show the players the time. When the button on the top of the device is pressed the device will start a countdown from 10 seconds again.

Each player is given a different coloured marker and each team is given a sheet of paper. The players in each team sit around their respective piece of paper and take turns drawing on the piece of paper. When the player is done drawing s/he needs to press the button on the device, then the next player in the team starts drawing and this continues in circles.

Both teams keep playing until 5 minutes are up or an alarm goes off. If an alarm goes off, the team whose alarm goes off first loses.

When drawing, the player who is drawing is not allowed to lift the pen from the paper, when the player lifts the pen from the paper, s/he needs to press the button and it is the next players turn. Players are not allowed to speak while the game is going.

After the 10 minutes are up and neither alarm goes off, the team with the best picture wins, as judged by people who aren’t playing. Best played with teams formed by people who do not have time beforehand to plan a picture.

RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/design-idea-wk10-art-game/

Design Idea Wk 9 — Fairytale

z3217492 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:08:20 +0000

The player and his two brthers are each given a budget of $1 000 000 from their father to spend as they wish. The player is given a timelimit of 1 year in order to spend that money and in that time they will need to build a house to live in. The game will be very open world and have a large number of choices to choose from. The game will be designed to have a large number of things to do including buying cars, achievements in all things such as collecting cars, planes, boats, buildings. There will be achievements in entering various competitions and will be full of minigames and other activities. All of these activities cost money and the player will only have a limited supply.

If the player is able to chooses to spend all his money in trying to get achievements, then he is able to buy cheaper materials to use and build a smaller house. Achievments will award the player with more gameplay, more story unlockable movies, trophies, titles and all those other types of achievements that people like getting when they play games.

Another option open to the player would be to spend the full million on building a luxurious and stable house.

The twist would be when the year is over, a tornado comes along and sweeps through the city and if the player chose to play with the money instead of use it properly on the house, then the house would cave in and all his achievements that was earnt throught the year would be blown away. If the players house survives the storm, then all the achievements that the player has earnt stays.

A third, final and most difficult option would be to use the million to start a company to increase the amount of money you have, although it would probrably take most of the year away and spend money to build a very strong and decent house and also have money to go out and actually have fun.

This game would be based off the three little pigs where the pig that built the brick house spent more time and effort on it and had less time to go have fun, but in the end didnt get his house blown down and eaten by a wolf. The fun would be the sense of achievement having finished the game taking the harder option and having the house survive the storm.

RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/design-idea-wk-9-fairytale/

Design Idea Wk8: A social game

z3217492 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:24:13 +0000

Trust
In this game two friends each select one person from their friends list who they hate the most and it is kept secret by the game. Each friend is given the option of ‘peeking’ at who the other person selected as the person they hate the most. If only one of them does it, then nothing happens, but if both of them ‘peek’, “I hate ***” will be broadcast to everyone on their friends list so everyone will know who each of them hate.

If they both refrain from peeking, a counter will go up each day and on each of their walls it will be displayed that each of them have kept their secret for however many days. This will still happened if one of them peeked.

The game theory would be somthing like this assuming higher number is higher the benefit:

	Keep Secret	Peek
Keep Secret	10 10	20 10
Peek	10 20	0 0

RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/design-idea-wk8-a-social-game/

Design Idea Wk 6: Hardware driven game

z3217492 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:57:43 +0000

Piano/Keyboard playing simulator.
Current music games are limited in the number of buttons that are available on the controller before it becomes far too complicated for people to want to play. A keyboard would have too many keys to form an accessory that people would want to buy just to play a game.

Having the keyboard similator based on the movements of the players fingers will allow the players to have a similar experience of playing a keyboard without the need for excessive hardware. The simple gloves would be easier to store and transport.

The on-screen gameplay would be similar to that of existing games like guitar hero or DDR and will focus on the players timing, tempo. Another mode should be introduced later for people who become more familar with the game which will require the player to read real music and play the notes. There may also be another mode where the player is able to ‘freeplay’ the toy of just the keyboard and is able to make their own music and express themselves

The reason why I think this game would be suited to a device such as this is that someone who actually knows how to play the piano will be able to have a similar experience to actually playing the piano. Games like guitar hero and wii tennis used the hardware to try and simulate a certain activity, but fail to recreate it in such a way that people who actually know how to play tennis or how to play guitar properly can enjoy. Having motion tracking simulate piano playing will be more accurate in depicting the actual act of playing the piano or keyboard than any other piece of hardware

Re : http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/design-idea-wk-6-hardware-driven-game/

Reflection Wk 6: Player-centred design

z3217492 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:46:56 +0000

When working for industry, I do think it is correct to throw away the desires to make ‘your own game’ and just follow and make whatever the clients ask for. However, if you are an established game company that does ‘make their own games’ rather than make games for other people, then you should definatly follow your own creative needs.

You do still need to cater the game to the target audience, but its often not good to listen to what the audience wants. Good game designers will know what the audience wants better than the audience themselves and are able to create games that really amaze their target market. This means that developers also need to throw away some of their own ambitions in order to satisfy what the target market wants.

Of course the really good game designers are able to implement the elements of the game they want to implement and satisfy the target audience at the same time.

It is very hard to generalise saying it is either way because it would depend on the particular game, the background of the game and the company that is developing the game. A small company that makes Shrek games for other companies cannot have their own say in what they want in the game and will need to only put things that will make people buy the game into the game.

Game companies like Square Enix, Blizzard and Capcom often spawn many sequals to their existing good games. Most of these new games contain many elements which are new and creative, while still satisfying the target market. These companies are in a financial position to experiment with different styles of gameplay and insert their own ideas, themes and mechanics into their games as well as satisfy the target audience.

Most independant game develops have no obligation to their audience and are free to make whatever they want, even if they plan to sell it.

Re: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/reflection-wk-6-player-centred-design/

Design Idea wk5: Mechanic driven

z3217492 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:02:05 +0000

Get a shallow pan of water, about 15cm deep with a diameter of about 60cm.
Cut out foam discs which are about 1cm diameter and write a number on the back and place the disc onto the pan of water so that the number is facing down. Each number will refer to a shot glass containing a drink. Have a bunch of shot glasses each with different drinks inside ie one has vodka and another may have whisky. The players may also choose to put some nasty drinks in some of the cups if they so wish. Have about 30 of these glasses, so there should be about 30 round discs floating face down in the water.

The aim of the game would be to stand about 2-3m back away from the pan of water and throw a bottlecap into the pan of water and try and hit the foam discs. For each foam disc that is facing up after each turn, the player goes and drinks those drinks. The players take it in turns to throw and drink. Drinks may be refilled and the discs are placed back face down.

The foam discs will float but the bottlecaps will sink when thrown into the water. This mechanic was used to design this drinking game.

RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/design-idea-wk5-mechanic-driven/

Reflection Wk 4 – Is that all there is?

z3217492 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:00:16 +0000

In many areas of the commercial game market, this is true. Companies such as Nintendo often just remake games instead of genuinly trying to create a new and different game. They do this because these companies have created franchises which have a strong history and are assured that people will buy their games as long as it is a ‘new version’ of existing games. Mario Kart is fun because the original idea of a racing game where people can shoot each other is a good one. Nintendo have basically run with this idea and have remade it countless times for each of their consoles because they are assured sales thanks to the successful game forumula.
First Person Shooters are essentially the same game made over and over, however many companies have tried adding new mechanics to their FPS games to create a new sense of fun and to an extent this has worked. However the problem is that once these companies have spent the work to develop some new formula to make fun games, they stick to it because it is safe and guarantees them sales.
This is a mixture of the fault of both the developers and the markets. The markets will like the same style of games because they know they are fun. There are gamers out there that crave for new innovative gameplay however the majority will just playe the popular games because they know it will be fun. For a new innovative game to become popular, it basically needs to be fun enough for the larger market.
This is not true for all game companies. There are some companies which do actively try to create games which are innovative and different while still being quite successful.
SquareEnix in the past few years have release a number of new and innovative games. Alot of these were very detailed but mostly not very fun. These would include games such as Final Fantasy XII and The Last Remnant. These games have left the traditional formulas they have used before in an attempt to create something different. The popularity of the companies games and titles have guaranteed a good number of sales, but these games have not been as successful as previous games.

In conclusion, the gaming industry is not dry for ideas, its just that most companies would prefer to guarantee sales with existing titles they know are successful and add new characters, new maps, new cars, new guns and maybe some new small mechanics that don’t change the overall gameplay and dynamics in a significant way.

RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/reflection-wk-4-is-that-all-there-is/

Design idea wk 4 – Games for Mum

z3217492 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:46:15 +0000

Ebay Game
This game idea stems from the idea that all middle-aged women want to buy things, but occasionally can’t because they don’t have the money, don’t feel they should spend the money or don’t have a place to put them.

This game would ideally be on NDS because it has a touch screen which has an easy interface for them to use and is portable so they can play it when waiting for their sons and daughters when they are at sport practice or something.

The game would give them a nice empty house and give them a limited amount of money per in-game day. The idea would be to go onto an ebay-like website and bid for various items such as nice TVs, decorative plates and other things to place around the house. The designs for the various items would be all different to cater for the different tastes in interior design that various people would have. The game would have the following mechanics:

There would be a huge list of items and designs (maybe 300 different designs for each piece of furniture, and have like 1000 different possible pieces of furniture and maybe 1000000 different pieces of apparel)
The items would become available for auction at random times
The items would, like ebay, have other competitors for the items and have a limited amount of time for bidding
There will be multiple items for auction at the same time and they may end at similar times, so the player cannot be absolutly sure they have won both at the same time
The player will have a limited amount of money to spend on these fictional items and a limited amount of space in the room to place them. If money runs out, then the player cannot bid further on the item, if the player runs out of space then s/he wil need to choose some items to throw out or try and sell on ebay
There is possibility of online multiplayer play where players can explore the houses/rooms of friends and sell items to one another

RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/design-idea-wk-4-games-for-mum/

Design Idea Wk 3 – Design a Toy

z3217492 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:50:02 +0000

e-Doll
There is a 3D stick figure on the screen. Using the mouse the player can move the limbs of the stick figure any way the player wants and when the mouse button is released the limb stays where it was left. The player has the ability to zoom in and out and rotate the camera view.

RE: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/design-idea-wk-3-design-a-toy/