Homework 14

Homework 12

We have one week left before we present our games.  Our team needs to create a cover page and multiple levels.  We need to add sound effects and texture or levels.  We only have one level so far but the level wasn't complete.  We are going to use our combined efforts to make this happen.

Homework 11

Chapter 15

1.      A goal with no obstacles is not worth pursuing. 

True, if there is no obstacles from the goal then the player is left without a challenge.

2.     What is the relationship between the main character and the goal? Why does the character care about it? 

The characters relationship to the goal is they must be the same.  The character should feel an emotional need or desire to obtain the goal.  There must be a meaningfulness between the character and goal to make the player  want to go after the goal.

3.     What are the obstacles between the character and the goal? 

               The obstacles in our game our the enemies and the exploration for the balls.

4.     Do the obstacles gradually increase in difficulty? If yes, how? 

               As of now they do not but if we where to continue the game they would.

5.     Great stories often involve the protagonist transforming to overcome the obstacle. Does your protagonist transform? 

               Our hero is only transformed by the feeling of accomplishment for having saved the world. There really        isn't any involvement of the development of the character in our game.

6.     How is the game world simpler than the real world? 

               There is only a few interactions and everything within the world are easily seen to be artificial.  So our   world is defiantly simpler than the real world.

7.      What kind of transcendent power do you give to the player? 

               Our player has no transcendent power other than the character controls.

8.     What is the weirdest element in the game story? 

               The enemies are pink blobs and don't really make sense.   But its part of the theme we based the game             off of.

9.     How do you ensure that the weirdest thing does not confuse or alienate the player? 

This doesn't affect anything in the game really.  This is just a trivial aspect of the game.

10.  Will the players be interested in the game story? Why? 

No. Only because the game story won't be developed far enough along.

Chapter 16

1.       In what sense does the player have freedom of action? Does the player "feel" free at these times? 

               The player has free actions most of the game.  The strict and slightly awkward movements don't leave you completely free though.  For the action that are given the player has freedom to do whatever they please.  There isn't any freedom options for the player to be had which does result in a constrained game. 

2.      What are the constraints imposed on the players? Do they feel constrained? 

               The constraints on the player are on just about everything.  There aren't any player options implemented in the game other than movement and weapon choice(hopefully).  So the player may feel constrained but this is overcome by the simplicity of the game not needing any of these options.

3.      Ideally, what would you like your players to do (lens #72)

               I would like the player of our game to explore the levels for the dragon balls and enjoy the environment around them along the way.  I would like them to come up with strategies to kill the enemies faster and more efficient.  All to reach the final level.

4.      Can you set constraints to "kind of" force the player to do it? 

               The constraint in which we have in place is that you cannot advance to another level untill you have found the dragon ball.

5.      Can you design your interface to "force" the player to do what you (the designer) wish him/her to do? 

               Absolutely.  If you can think like a player you can have foresight into his next actions.  Then you can develop a game to work towards the goal by the environment changing and simple goals leading to a bigger goal.

Balance

               The first type of balance is fairness.  Fairness in our game would be seen through the character enemy interaction.  If a player is touched by an enemy the game resets but it is also very easy to kill an enemy with only one bullet.  Another example of fairness in the game would be how you reach the next level.  The level of difficulty in this  is a kind of fairness. It's not that hard.

               The second type of fairness is Challenge verses Success.  Our games flow is relatively quick and easy and because of the time constraint there will only be a few levels  to keep you from ever getting bored.  The level of difficulty in theory would get harder the more you advanced on but for now there's only going to be one difficulty.  

               The third type of fairness deals with Meaningful Choices.  Where should i go, who do i kill first....?  Our game is going to have you make simple choices.  As who to kill first...Well just don't get touched. Shoot or start over. kill or be killed.  The enemy interaction are simple enough to not make the player think to hard to overcome the enemy yet still be demanding enough. 

               The fourth type of fairness is Skill vs. Chance.  The opposing force in our game is a simple enemy .  This gives the player too much skill and may make our game too predictable but if we where to go on with the game the level of difficulty would increase leveling this out.  Also if we were able to implement a randomizing element to the dragon balls location our skill of the player would need to increase.

               The fifth type of fairness deals with Heads verses Hands.  This is referring to the player pushing buttons or solving puzzles.  Our game has a good mix of both with the exploring for the dragon balls and killing of enemies.  The puzzle is in the adventure and the challenge of button smashing comes in the enemy interactions.  Our game doesn't have any competition or cooperation in it because it is only a single player game.

               The seventh type of fairness is the length of game play.  Our game defiantly falls under the too short category.  But this is due to the time constraint.  The game has no time constraint so as long as you don't get to close to an enemy the game is only really in action when the player is playing.  This  means the game and end when you die or win or you get bored and leave(afk).

               The eight type of fairness is the reward system.  Our reward system is you have quest to get a dragon ball and then move on to the next level.  Your reward is you get to move on to the next level.  So your rewarded with the success of finding the ball but i would like to think the beautiful environment along the quest is a reward within itself.  You also get rewards for not dying but getting to continue to play and sometimes that's a challenge within itself to stay on the map.

               With rewards comes punishments.  The punishment for wondering off the map or letting an enemy touch you results in an end of game.  So the shortening and restarting of play is what you get punished with in our game.  Also the bad sound effects are punishing enough.

               Freedom vs. Controlled.  Our game is too much controls in the fact that you have the only power in the game.  I tried to add animations where the environment would move the player but failed in every attempt.

               Another degree of fairness is how simple or complex the game is.  Our game is very simple thus very simple.  It may be to simple but the goal was to create a game and we didn't quit reach the point of complexity in our game.

              

              

               

Homework 8

·  Is the space in your game discrete or continuous?

            Our game is in a discrete world.

·  How many dimensions does your space have? 

            Our game is in 3 deminsion.

·  What are the boundaries of your space? 

            The boundaries in our game is staying on the level if you fall you die.

·  How many verbs do your players (characters) have? What are they?

            Our character can run, turn and shoot.

·  How many objects can each verb act on? What are these objects? 

            Each action works with only the character.

·  How many ways can players achieve their goals

            The player can achieve goals by finding the way to the next level by searching around for a dragon ball that will unlock the door to the next level.  Shooting an enemy will kill it also.

·  How many subjects do the players control? What are these subjects? 

            The player will only control the character with which has the ability to interact with the other objects in the game.           

·  What are the operative actions in your game? 

            the operative action in the game are the character movements.

·  What actions would you like your players to do that they cannot presently do? (based on your current knowledge of Blender)

            I would like the player to be able to jump without tipping over or double jumping.

·  What is the ultimate goal of your game?

            To find all the dragon balls and defeat the final boss to get the last one. 

·  Are there short and long term goals? What are they? 

            Short term goals are to find the dragon balls and advance to the next level.  Long term goals would be to get to the final level and get the last dragon ball.

·  How do you plan to make the game goals known and understood by the player? 

            The only way we can explain the rules of the game in-game is through a text floating across the screen.

·  What are the foundational rules of your game? 

            Collect dragon balls and advance level.

·  How are these rules enforced? 

            You cannot advance to the next level until you have gathered the dragon ball.

·  Does your game develop real skills? What are they? 

            Our game doesn't develop any real skills.

·  Does your game develop virtual skills? What are they? 

            The virtual skills learned by our game are just the basic controls and problem solving at its simplest form.

homework 7

In this picture there is a graveyard scene in our game.  I appended the player and the graveyard into a scene in the final game.  The player has all of his animations to move around the level. Also when texturing the graveyard i had no problem with the graves and the the grave stone but i found a problem when coping the dead tree.  When ever i copy the tree my materials go crazy.  I'm still working on fixing this issue.

Homework 6 chapter 4-5

 
-Four each of the four elements of the Tetrad, explain how it is addressed by your game. If one of the four elements is not used, please state this. 

               The first of the tetrad is mechanics.  Mechanics are the procedures and rules for the game.  In our game the mechanics work through the tasks given to reach the next level.  The rule for each level is to find an object that will open up the door to the next level and face enemies along the way.  So the goal is to reach the end of the game by overcoming the enemies and obstacles.  This is our set of procedures to further your player in our game.

               The second is story.  Our game doesn't have a story that is told throughout the game.  This is due because it's hard to incorporate story telling items into the game we aren't far enough along yet in blender  to try do so.  But hopefully we can add a item in the game like ripped note book pages telling a story that the player finds through the quest.

               The third part of the tetrad is the aesthetics.  Our game is going to textured through tile able images giving it a clean neat look.  But the time constraints,  leaves the modeling of our objects a little box like still throwing off the overall look.  Also sound in our game hasn't yet been incorporated so there is a missing element to this part of the tetrad.  So our overall aesthetics are going to be a bit rough.

               The final part of the tetrad is technology.  This is the part of this tetrad that the blender program comes into.  Without the blender technologies we wouldn't be able to make this kind of game.

              

  -Do the four (or less) elements work towards a current theme? 

               The four elements of the tetrad should work towards the theme.  These elements are going to sculpt the players experience and leave a lasting effect.  Hopefully the use of these elements help the theme to resonate with the player.  As technology has gotten better so has themes of games so there is defiantly a connection there.  The aesthetics and mechanics should both relfect the theme of the game and the final goal.

  -In your own words, describe the meaning of a "theme", and how does it differ from an "experience" (see book for examples in Chapters 2 and 5. 

               A theme is what keeps the player playing. The theme what makes the characters in the games significant.  It gives the characters in a game an extra dimension of realism bringing real feeling and emotions into a game reality.   I think everyone has a personal preference when it comes to themes like heroism, love, or betrayal.   The experience is more like taking in what the game has to offer mechanically, aesthetically, story line.  Experiences are like using just using sight and smell but when you're talking about theme it involves all the senses.

  -What is your game's theme? 

               Our games theme is about the character trying find these dragon balls while overcoming enemies.  This is a basic heroism theme and hopefully we can evolve it into something more.

 - What are the elements in your game that are meant to reinforce this theme? 

               The element we have placed into the game to reinforce the theme is the environment in which the character finds himself in.  We hope to incorporate ripped note book pages that tell the story.

  -What is it about your game that you feel makes it special and powerful?

               The special part of our game is that it is my personal game. The uniqueness of how we created the game in our own idea is what makes it special.