Month: December 2020

Summary

The game I chose was Rocket League. I chose it because it is a very fun game and they recently came out with a new season. Also, it involves two of my favorite things, driving cars and soccer.

Game Play Analysis

Formal Elements
The Basics
Name of the game	Rocket League
The platform	Playstation 4
Time played (should be at least 30 minutes)	1 hour 30 mins
If you could work on this game (change it), what would you change and why?	Maybe make it less complicated by not having so may buttons
Players	NOTES
How many players are supported?	1-4 Players or 2-8 Network Players
Does it need to be an exact number?	It depends on what mode you play.
How does this affect play?	Well if you are playing a team game against 4 people are you are by yourself then it not gonna be good for you.
Objectives/Goals	NOTES
What are the players trying to do?	You are trying to beat the other team or person by scoring more goals within a certain amount of time.
Rules/Mechanics	NOTES
There are three categories of (what Rules of Play calls) operational rules:	There are no rules, you can do anything to score.
Controls	NOTES
What controls are used?	The buttons on the controller
Was there a clear introductory tutorial?	Yes
Were they easy to understand or did you find yourself spamming the controller?	Yes
Resources & Resource Management	NOTES
What kinds of resources do players control?	You can control where you play, the ball you use, the time, the amount of players and the car.
How are they maintained during play?	Whatever you pick never changes within the round.
What is their role?	To help make the game more personalized.
Game State	NOTES
How much information in the game state is visible to the player?	Alot. The time left, points and leaderboard.
Sequencing	NOTES
In what order do players take their actions?	Simultaneously and in realtime
How does play flow from one action to another?	Very smoothly
Player Interaction	NOTES
Some examples: Direct Conflict – I attack you.Negotiation – If you support me here, I’ll help you there. Trading – I’ll give you this for that. Information Sharing – If you go there, I’m warning you, a trap will go off.	Direct Conflict with teams
Theme & Narrative	NOTES
Does it have an actual story structure?	NO
Is it based on a historical event (or similar)?	NO
Does the theme or narrative help you know how to play?	I think so
Does it have emotional impacts?	I mean if you win you happy but if you lose you sad
Also, look for en media res (does it start in the middle of the game)?	No, not unless you join a game that someone had already started.
The Elements in Motion	NOTES
How do the different elements interact?	Car interacts with the ball, the ball interacts with its arena/surroundings
What is the gameplay like?	Smooth but also very fast
Is it effective?	Yes
Are there any points where the design choices break down?	No
Design Critique	NOTES
Why did the designer make these particular choices?	To make the game more interesting
Why this set of resources?	To make something different
What if they made different decisions?	Then the game would probably be not as fun
Does the design break down at any point?	No
Graphics & Sound	NOTES
Does the game art pair well with the mechanics?	Yes
Did you find any bugs or glitches?	No
What about sound?	Runs nicely and is very clear
Can you spot any technical shortcuts?	No
Various Stages of the Game	NOTES
To wrap up, some things to keep in mind (as if there aren’t enough already) as you play:	It is very fast and complicated so I would pay a lot of attention during the tutorials
What challenges do you face, and how do you overcome them?	Its challenging when you play someone that is way better or worse than you but you just have to try to adapt
Is the game fair?	Yes
Is it replayable? Are there multiple paths to victory or optional rules that can change the experience?	Yes
What is the intended audience?	I would say people who like sports/ racing games
What is the core, the one thing you do over and over, and is it fun? Score ( it wouldn’t let me type in the other box

This analysis form was adapted from https://notlaura.com/a-template-for-analyzing-game-design/

Summary

• IN ONE TO TWO SENTENCES, DESCRIBE WHAT GAME YOU ANALYZED FOR THIS PROJECT AND WHY YOU CHOSE IT
• DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s ALL UPPERCASE INSTRUCTIONS ABOVE

Game Play Analysis

This analysis form was adapted from https://notlaura.com/a-template-for-analyzing-game-design/

“Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner” by classic film scans is licensed under CC BY 2.0

“Analysis gave me great freedom of emotions and fantastic confidence. I felt I had served my time as a puppet.”

Hedy Lamarr

SUMMARY

I played a game and analyzed it, and I also updated my GTD System and sent a screenshot of that.

OUTSIDE (CREATIVITY, PRODUCTIVITY & THE BRAIN)

I think this guide is really helpful because when you’re in quarantine is really easy to slack off and not do anything, but it is really important to still take care of your body mentally and physically. I personally agree with the Cope With Stress and Anxiety section because I struggle with my anxiety which causes me to be stressed super easily, so that section I think is really helpful for people who go through that.

ARCADE

The games that I played were Amoung Us and Super Smash Bros.

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

I learned about all the things that you can do to take care of yourself in quarantine. All the things you can do mentally and physically to keep yourself motivated and healthy. Something that I problem solved was that this week I was feeling not motivated at all so I decided to put down all my electronics and work on school for a few hours at a time.

“The successful free to play games are selling positive emotions. Not content.” – Nicholas Lovell

“It should be the experience, that is touching. What I strive for is to make the person playing the game the director.” – Shigeru Miyamoto

SUMMARY

I learned about MDA and how to use in in a game. I also completed more lesson on sololearn.

PRACTICE ROOM (TUTORIALS)

Construct 3 – Javascript

Unity – C#

The last lesson I completed was Conditionals and Loops: The Switch Statement.

Notes for me

• The switch statement provides a more elegant way to test a variable for equality against a list of values.

• Each value is called a case, and the variable being switched on is checked for each switch case.

• Each case represents a value to be checked, followed by a colon, and the statements to get executed if that case is matched.

• The role of the break statement is to terminate the switch statement.

• Without it, execution continues past the matching case statements and falls through to the next case statements, even when the case labels don’t match the switch variable.

• All case and default code must end with a break statement.

CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)

MDA Notes

Mechanics: describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms. Together with the game content (levels, assets, and so on) the mechanics support overall gameplay dynamics. Adjusting the mechanics of a game helps us fine-tune the
gameís overall dynamics

Dynamics: describes the run-time behavior of the
mechanics acting on player inputs and each othersí
outputs over time. Expression comes from dynamics that encourage
individual users to leave their mark: systems for
purchasing, building, or earning game items, for designing,
constructing and changing levels or worlds, and for
creating personalized, unique characters

Aesthetics: describes the desirable emotional responses
evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game
system. What makes a game fun? How do we know a specific
type of fun when we see it? In describing the aesthetics of a game, we want to move
away from words like ìfunî and ìgameplayî towards a
more directed vocabulary

LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)

Brainstorm Ideas for Each of the Eight Categories

1. Sensation (Game as sense-pleasure): The player enjoys memorable audio-visual effects.
   • A game where the main character is satisfied by the scenery and location of the game.
2. Fantasy (Game as make-believe): Imaginary world.
   • An Elf is Fighting another Elf to see who is Santa’s #1 Elf. I literally thought of this in 5 seconds and I think that this will be a hit with kids ages 6-10 lol.
3. Narrative (Game as drama): A story that drives the player to keep coming back
   • The main character (a knight), is trying to locate treasure using a map and some clues and along the way, he has to complete challenges. He wants to give up but he doesn’t because he wants to prove to his family that he is not a quitter.
4. Challenge (Game as obstacle course): Urge to master something. Boosts a game’s replayability.
   • A racing game where you have to complete a bunch of training runs and practices in order to be the best of the best. Once your racer becomes the best you can pick a new racer to train.
5. Fellowship (Game as a social framework): A community where the player is an active part of it. Almost exclusive for multiplayer games.
   • A building game where you have to build your own store and earn money. You have to interact with customers and make sure that they are happy. If they are not happy then you will start losing customers. IF you have no consumers you lose.
6. Discovery (Game as uncharted territory): Urge to explore the game world.
   • You somehow ended up in an abandoned city where there is no one around, You have to use the resources around you to make food and shelter to survive. You have to explore the city in order to find useful materials. You might have to fight some creatures along the way.
7. Expression (Game as self-discovery): Own creativity. For example, creating a character resembling the player’s own avatar.
   • A game where you can customize your own character and surroundings. Also, you can collaborate with your friends to create characters and things.
8. Submission (Game as a pastime): Connection to the game, as a whole, despite constraints.
   • A game that can be played offline so that you can play it anytime. A game that isn’t too complicated by still very addicting so that people will play it.

OUTSIDE (CREATIVITY, PRODUCTIVITY & THE BRAIN)

We live in a world it’s way easier to think negatively than positively. I know for me, it’s easier for me to say something is hard and I can’t do it instead of saying I can do it. This process is actually really helpful. If you have a negative thought, you should stop and think of a positive way to say what you are trying to say. This is something that I think a lot of people struggle with especially kids so if we can learn the best way to think positively instead of negatively, then we will be more successful.

STUDIO (CREATIVITY)

By skimming over this I learned some of the basic things like how to navigate through construct and tips and tricks on how to create a game. I learned how to share and collaborate on team projects, and what each behavior does.

CONTROL ROOM (PRODUCTION)

I learned how to create a project on Github. I also learned how to transfer your project so you can make changes in Construct. It also explained how to add other collaborators to your project, which was good to know. To sum it all up this article showed me how I can collaborate with my teammates on Construct Projects.

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

I learned how to think positively instead of negatively. I also learned how to use Github to collaborate on Construct projects. A problem that I solved was that I had limited time to work on things because I was busy so I created a schedule to help me make sure I have time to work on work from all classes.