WEEK 9 | Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances

I haven't played many strategy games in my time, so I thought I'd give Command and Conquer a go, but unfortunately the only version I could get my hands on for free was Tiberium Alliances.  On playing this game, I realised that its extremely similar to another largely popular social media game found on Facebook - 'Dragons of Atlantis'.  Truth be told, I think I prefer the Dragons theme over a human war though. 

This game is based purely online, with a strong social theme.  Players must build up an empire and align themselves with other players (factions).  Its the type of game that you check once or twice a day then leave it gathering resources for you while your not playing.  

Players are allotted a section of a grid upon commencement of the game.  They are surrounded by thousands of other players who reside in their own grids and the goal of the game is to build a strong empire and attack other players.

Combat is very simple, the enemies base is divided up into rows and the invading player must line up their units in each of the rows that has targets in them.  The battle outcomes are determined by the levels of each of the attacking and defending units.  

There is little story and the visuals are basic, but the hunter gatherer mechanic makes for an addictive game.  There were many times during the day that I would wonder how my base was going and that I should log on and build some more units.  The background music is dramatic and adds to the aesthetics that the basic graphics provide.   

The challenge is in creating the right mix of offensive and defensive units.  Players build capability is limited by the levels of their main factories, which in turn is determined by the amount of resources the player has accumulated.  So there is a very well designed system that provides differing levels of challenge.  

Overall:  I like it.  It's not the sort of game that you sit down and play continually, but one that you log into several times during the day to check and make small adjustments to.  I think this style of play can be just as immersive as normal games, as I found myself thinking about it many times during the day, and it proved to be a huge distraction while trying to study for exams!

WEEK 8 | Game Design Progress

Game:  The Bronze Horseman

Group:  Nathan, Leonie, Michael

Aim:  Create a prototype board game of The Bronze Horseman (or an element from it)

Premise:  The game thrusts players into a struggle for survival and ones self-worth, as they are confronted with the harsh realities of war. They must survive and save as many of their family members as possible by scavenging for supplies throughout a city under siege. 

Last week, the group was formed and we discussed the original game concept that was taken from a section of the novel The Bronze Horseman.  We played a quick play through of the prototype that I had developed for Assignment 1.  On the whole, the other guys liked the concept, in particular the emotional side of it (sacrificing family members, surviving a war) and also the mechanic of movement which is based on how much food the player has.  

We all picked up on areas that need changing or scrapping, which were elaborated on more in todays workshop by brainstorming, with the intention of getting ideas on refining the game goals and mechanics.  We feel that once we have these settled on, then the rest of the assignment should flow on easily.   

The element we wish to concentrate on is creating a really emotional game experience that the story has already provided us with - being the war survival situation, with the main character (player) having to find food each day to feed their family, and having to choose which family members to sacrifice if they can't find enough food.  This will be quite a sombre game, filled with desperation, dread and hopefully a sense of loss. 

The main ideas we had today were:

• having some vivid props in the game to strengthen the emotional story - something that moves the player when they have to choose which family member to sacrifice
• recognition that the scope of the original concept was perhaps too large and technical
• recognising the need to create more conflict between the players themselves, perhaps involving a combat system somehow (players stealing each others food)

At this stage, everything is going swimmingly and everyone is very enthusiastic at the possibilities the concept provides.  Now that we know that we want to create an emotional game by sticking to the original concept story, we have to knuckle down next week and play test the game in order to redefine the game mechanics.  

Here's our basic initial work breakdown:
1)  Define Mechanics

• define goal (1week) [All]
• define rules   (1week) [All]

2) Clarify Story  (1week) [All]

3) Design board

• layout   (1week) 
• props - food, family members, assets   (1week) 

4) Documentation

• write design document   (1week)  [All]
• write presentation   (1week) [All]

WEEK 8 | Day of the Tentacle Review

Day of the Tentacle is a humorous point and click adventure game from LucasArts.  From fake barfs, mutant tentacles, time travel, frozen hamsters, this game has it all!

Mechanics:  Do actions (look, pickup, use) and use inventory items on objects in the scene.  Players must solve puzzles to progress through the story.  An innovative spin on the traditional point and click puzzles which normally require the player to use the correct objects with each other, is the fact that the player can play from the viewpoint of not one, but three characters.  These characters are dispersed through time, separated over the space of 400 yrs.  So at one point, the player must put a key item in a wine bottle in the past, so that the character in the future can retrieve it like a time capsule.  There are many examples of puzzles involving the differing time periods and this helps to keep the puzzles fresh.  Each puzzle is funny and very well thought out and implemented, adding varying levels of challenge, but using the dialogue as cues/clues to solve the puzzles.

Story:  Quirky story line involving mad scientists, mutant tentacles and nerds!  The player must assume the role of three different characters in three time lines in order to stop a mutant tentacle from taking over the world (cue maniacal laugh!).  I love the fact that they use a comic version of the signing of the American constitution as the scene for the 200yrs in the past story line, featuring Edison, Washington and Franklin.  At a certain stage in the game in the future timeline, the player requires a way to get a hamster out of a mouse hole in the wall (think vacuum cleaner?!?!) and the players just happen to have an advertisement for a vacuum cleaner.  Meanwhile in the past, the forefathers are stuck for ideas on what to put in the constitution and have a suggestion box available for anyone to submit ideas, so ...... the way to solve the puzzle is to submit the advertisement into the suggestion box, which results in the forefathers adding to the constitution that each American home must have a "blah blah" type of vacuum cleaner in it!  This changes the time line in the future so that a vacuum cleaner appears in the house in the future, enabling the player to use it to retrieve the hamster! 

This game has some very well developed characters - I especially loved the forefathers. 

Technology:  This is an old game, so it still uses 2D graphics, but has however, a great dialogue audio and music.  

Aesthetics:  Very colourful, cartoonish style graphics help accentuate the comic feel of the game, and ties in very well with the dialogue and story.  

Overall:  Great story + witty, quirky characters + great mechanics == one of Leonie's top 5 games of all time!  

WEEK 7 | Spelunky Review

Interactivity – Run, jump, sprint, climb, bomb and whip through a maze of underground tunnels.  

Concept/Arena/Story – The player assumes the role of a miner, and must navigate their way through underground tunnels and traps, solving puzzles in order to finish each level. 

 

Goal – to make it to the door at the end of each level. Collect as much gold and gems as possible in order to buy the objects that you may need to solve the puzzles

Challenge – Players must collect ropes, bombs and other objects in order to solve puzzles that allow the player to progress further through the level.  The player has a limited amount of lives, once these are exhausted, then the player must begin the level again.  This can be extremely frustrating if you die right near the end, but the consolation is that the levels are procedurally generated, so the level will not be the same once you respawn.  This is an interesting featuring, which somewhat pacifies the players (my hand it up!) who hate having to restart at the beginning and repeat what they have already done.

Story - There isn't much of a story to the game, and I feel this could have added to its appeal and lifted it from being just a mediocre game. 

Overall:  It was ok, but nothing worth writing home about.  I didn't really feel I was working towards anything worthwhile, and this I feel could have been remedied through the integration of a more detailed storyline.  The mechanics themselves are quite addictive, and the level of challenge is well done.  It was extremely frustrating when I had to repeatedly restart the level however, which I think ultimately lead me to walk away from this one.