Twine Game

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47788138/FINAL%20TWINE%20GAME.html

Midterm Game Design Reflection

The midterm project was an amazing insight into the process of creating a playable game. It was much harder to successfully incorporate everything we’ve learned this semester into the game; between a narrative, rules, conflict, environment, and more, my group really had to focus to make the game work. We decided early on that we would want to use the subway map as a board, but it took us a while to figure out a storyline that would fit with the board. After throwing ideas back and forth, we finally decided to have an assassination game where the first player to reach 42^nd street would win the game. To make game play easy to understand, we assigned the boroughs as players. Each player was either Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, or the Bronx, and everyone had to make it to midtown Manhattan to win the game. We edited the subway lines to that each player would follow 1-2 subway lines to get to 42^nd street. 

Looking back now, I think it would have been better to just eliminate all the lines except for the ones we would use to play. By keeping the entire subway map intact, it was a little confusing as to where a player should move next. I think our system of rules was fairly well thought out. Players would roll a die to determine how many subway stops they went, and they could land on express stops or event stops. This made the typical game last for about 15 minutes, which is the targeted time we were looking for. At first we had 20 stops per player, but after playtesting we realized we should make it closer to 30.

Even though each player starts in a different borough, there are 26 stops for each subway thay they use. This ensures an equal playing field, so whatever borough you are doesn’t affect your change of winning. I made a key for the game using the actual MTA key, and I edited it to make personal to our game.

     This legend was my favorite part of making the game. Duncan and Gregory took care of the rules and the event cards and I took care of the visuals. Overall our group worked well together and we were all able to compromise and create an interesting game with a solid narrative and a working set of rules.

Rules of Play Response #5: Narratives

In my opinion, narrative play is one of the most vital components of an enjoyable gaming experience. A narrative gives meaning to the game we are playing. I tend to prefer games that have a story-mode over games like checkers or tic-tac-toe, which do not require your character or your movements to have meaning. Games like this are just performance games, and we don’t need to have any motive except finishing the game. In order to establish a system for meaningful play, there are 3 elements that we must have: situation, character, and form.

Situation: a narrative has an initial state, a change in that state, and insight brought about by that change. These can be summed up as events.

Character: A narrative is a personification of events through a medium.

Form: Representation is constituted by patterning and repetition.

If we have these 3 components, we have a narrative in game play. Giving a story to a game is probably the only reason why we like to play games. Lets say the goal of a certain level was to collect 10 stars. Without a character or an environment, we would be a digital figure wandering around a coded environment searching for a specific item. Why would we put ourselves through this? If we turn ourselves into Mario and we need 10 stars to gain access to a new level, the goal suddenly becomes much more interesting and meaningful.

         Uncertainty is another important aspect of meaningful game play. Why would we watch a movie if we knew exactly what was going to happen? Why would we read a book if the ending was entirely obvious? The same mindset exists when playing a game. There needs to be some mystery in it for us to be dedicated enough to finishing the game. Even if we know the goal of a game, the way in which we achieve that goal isn’t always obvious. We have to use trial and error to figure out how to beat it, giving uncertainty to the game.

Rules of Play Response #4: Rules of Digital Games

         In order to analyze the rules of digital games, we must first establish what defines a rule: they limit player action, they are explicit and unambiguous, all players share them, they are fixed, they are binding, and they are repeatable. When moved to a computer or a gaming console, it is necessary that these rules be translated into the game. By playing an electronic game, we are really changing the way the game is being played. Not the rules – just the method of play. For example, playing tic-tac-toe changes when we do it on a computer because now we have an aspect of a screen, a mouse, and clicking. Instead of paper and pencil, we must learn to use the tools that the computer allows us to play the game. The rules of the game remain unchanged, but we must adapt to the digital version.

         This reading also dealt with conflict. If you think about it, there is pretty much always a conflict in a game; that’s why we play it! We want to resolve the conflict by performing certain tasks. The challenges we face in a game are the conflict. Sometimes the conflict is as simple as beating your opponent in a game of chance. Sports often take on the group v group conflict, with teams working together to try and come out on top. There is also one against many, single player competing against a game system, a group competing against a game system, or every man for themselves. Resolving conflicts is often driven by competition.

         Another major component in conflict is the goal of a game. In one game there can be many different conflicts. When we look at the game Tetris, we know that it is always the goal to try and clear the level by trying to complete lines. However there are different modes of play in Tetris. We can play to clear the board, we can play until we clear 40 lines, or we can see how many lines we can clear in a certain amount of time. These all fall under the game of Tetris, but the conflict in each of these versions differ from one another.

Choose a Sport! Sumo

·       

Components

- Two Sumo wrestlers, a dohyo (a ring measuring 14.9 ft in areaand 175 sq feet in area. There are rice-straw bales in top of the platform thatare composed of clay and sand. Many of these also have  Shinto Shrine as a roof, since sumo isvery traditional.

·      Rules

- The Sumo Association makes upthe rules. Sumo is not just a sport, but also a lifestyle, where sumo wrestlershave distinct communities (heya) with a very strict schedule. Their clothing,diet, and behavior is determined by the life of the Sumo.

·      Goals
- The goal of the game is to knock your opponent out of the ring or off of hisfeet. You can slap, grab, grab, and push your opponent to get them out of the ring.

·      Core Mechanics

- In sumo, core mechanics arevisible in the approaches that each sumo wrestler takes to knock the other onedown. There are certain strategies and techniques that players use which can bepredicted if the palayer repeats a certain pattern too often.

·      Game Space
- dohyo (a ring measuring 14.9 ft in area and 175 sq feet in area. There are rice-straw bales in top of the platform that are composed of clay and sand. Many of these also have  Shinto Shrine as a roof, since sumo is very traditional.

·      Choice

·      Conflict

– Sumo is a very aggressive sport. It is a contact sport. The conflict is to beat your opponent! Knock him down!

Rules of Play Response #3: Defining Rules

            This reading was a bit more straightforward than the previous ones. Whenever I am asked if I want to play a game that I haven’t heard of before, there is only one question that comes to mind: what are the rules? There is simply no way to properly participate in a game if you aren’t aware of what limitations you have. The rules are probably the most defining characteristic of a game – they give you your goal, and they tell you how you are meant to achieve it. By examining a deck of cards and all the games that use one, it is explained how the pieces/parts of a game are engrained into the rules. There are also rules of strategy, which aren’t required but are vital to win the game. The example they use is when playing tic-tac-toe, it is a strategic rule to block your opponent from making 3 in a row.

                  Many games share general rules, or “under the hood rules.” Rules such as players alternate turns. These types of rules must exist within context of the rest of the game in order to make sense. This example doesn’t tell you how to make a turn, it just lets you know that players will take turns one after the other.

                  My favorite part of the reading was how it pointed out that science is considered a form of uncovering rules of nature. The more we learn about the world, the more we are able to understand the relationships between molecules. I never tried to pt science so simply; if we can figure out the rules of nature, we can better play the game of life. 

Rules of Play Response #2: Systems

        This reading introduces us to gaming systems by using examples such as the human body, organs, and the skeletal system to illustrate how they work. A gaming system must have an organized set of rules and principles, and a general form that is common throughout the game. This is what makes the game make sense and what make’s it playable. I was a bit confused as to what the book meant, however once they used soccer as an example the concept became much clearer to me. In order for a system to work, every component of that particular system must be doing it’s part. How can a soccer team expect to win without a goalie? Without offensive players? Each player has a task, and each task must be performed in order to win. A system isn’t just the characters and the goal, but it is also the setting. For a game to be played, there must be a game space that fits the needs of the game itself. So we must remember that a gaming system encompasses objects, attributes, internal relationships, and environment.

            I feel that there must be a correlation between complexity of gaming systems and the dedication a person has to finishing them. As I said in my last post, games such as snake have an extremely simple system: there is a snake, there are the dots the snake must eat, and the only rule is that you can’t run into yourself or the wall. The system is basic, and my attention span for the game is limited. However, I am much more intrigued when I play old Pokémon games on my GBA. There is so much potential in the game, hundreds of Pokémon, numerous trainers, various minigames, and more. The structure of the game is complex and I find that I am more curious to try and progress in the game. This may also have something to do with interactivity; I have taken on the role as my virtual trainer and created relationships within the game. For the most part my path to becoming a Pokémon leader is set in the game structure, but I do have the freedom to choose to do activities on the side as well.