This week we covered the crucial yet understated topic of accessibility in games. Many will argue that we should not worry so much about accessibility in game development because  people do not need to be able to play all games and it inconveniences privileged players to have these accommodations (apparently). However, not only is this attitude harsh and selfish, it is also the attitude that would severely hinder development and betterment in all fields. Without taking accessibility into account, many important advancements would not be made and general progress in development would be fatally hindered if things were only available to a small portion of the population. Simple changes and considerations on part of the game developer can make a world of difference for countless people in experiencing games.

One example of a game that is very limited with accessibility is Rainbow Six Siege. Positional sound is crucial in playing the game in locating enemies and objectives. There is no visual supplement to this so people who are hard of hearing are at large disadvantage. In comparison, Destiny 2 had a good combination of visual and audible cues that tells players where enemies and objectives are. For example, all enemies make a different sound so you can locate them and know what is coming without visual cues. On top of that, there are also visual indicators, including red blotches on the screen in the direction that the enemy is that change in size the more dangerous the enemy is (larger blotches for larger enemies). There are also small white arrows pointing to enemies in case the red blotches are not visible for someone. In my experiences, Destiny 2 has the most accessibility in terms of reading the map and surroundings. 

Games that are used to represent disabilities, like Blindscape which we played in class, can have very profound impacts on players and are a very creative and artistic way to portray peoples’ experiences. This goes back into the argument about games being a form of art, because games like this can express things so creatively. An interactive experience like this can show aspects of an experience that are not as easily portrayed in different, more traditional, forms of art.

These past few weeks we have been challenged with creating a game in assigned groups and limited to virtual interactions and meetings because of the given situation. This inconvenient situation may have been particularly educational for us given that many real world game designers are working with each other from different parts of the world and face several hardships in the game designing process as a team including but not limited to: coordination issues, language barriers, time zone conflict, travel conflict, technical difficulties in virtual interactions, and many other things that come with working with people that are not in your physical space. We got a small taste of facing such issues during game design with our group projects. One part of this process that was particularly inconvenient given the online only conditions we are forced to abide by was playtesting. 

During playtesting, we split into different Discord groups and played each other’s games. An issue we faced was that there were not enough players present to play our game to its full extent, limiting the “roleplay” effect and feel of our game (on top of the limitations of the virtual interaction which also greatly limited roleplaying abilities). In her section on playtesting, Fullerton wrote “Your role at this point is not that of the game designer but that of an investigator and observer who must give these playtesters access to the game, lead them through a useful playtest, record what they say and do, and, later, analyze their responses  Rather than telling players what to think about your game or explaining how it works, let them play it with no or minimal explanation” (pg 281). In our case, all of the game designers had to be a player in their own game because for our game, we did not have enough players, and for the other team’s game, we did not possess the program (Tabletop Simulator) needed to run their game, so they had to play the game for us on a livestream. While there was a lot of useful feedback from the playtesting session, it would have been much more effective if a) it was not virtual and b) there were more players so the game designers did not have to play their own games. However, given our circumstances, these factors were unavoidable. At least now we are more familiar with the process for future use. 

Works Cited:

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.

This week in class we saw a small chunk of gameplay of Night In the Woods, and it amazed me that the brief part of the game I saw caught so much attention from me because of the details and thoughtfulness of the game. It was amazing to hear one of the creators discuss the inspirations for the game and how closely they related to real life to the immediately see that afterwards, translated so beautifully into the game. The art style, sound design and mechanics of the game all flowed together extremely well and did a great job of reflecting on many of the themes that the creator was discussing in the lecture beforehand, including depression, dissociation, coming of age, and many other cleverly integrated themes into a seemingly simple game style.

 In one section of the chapter this week, Fullerton writes “There is an aesthetic beauty possible with game feel. That is, something beautiful is created at the intersection of player and game.  The act of play can create something aesthetically beautiful, aurally, visually, and/ or tactilely” (pg 259). I think this very much relates to what we see in Night in the Woods. While the game’s basics are a side view platformer with limited world possibilities, the careful consideration of every piece (art, sound, style, dialogue, mechanics, etc) create a very special relationship between the player and the game. 

Another part of the chapter that related to our discussion of Night in the Woods is when Fullerton wrote about Kinesthetics in game design, specifically when she writes,  “The kinesthetics are the ‘feel’ of the game, how the controls feel, how responsive the interface is, etc” (pg 245). This came up in the video before the gameplay, where the creator explained that they put jumping in just because jumping is fun. While on its face, this comment sounded like a silly reason, the jumping mechanic very much added to the light-heartedness of the game, and gave it a more adventurous feel.

Works Cited:

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.

Fullerton summed up some of the major points in this weeks chapter fairly well in her conclusion, writing “Understanding your role in a team and having the interpersonal skills to work within a team structure are as important as any of the design skills I have discussed to this point  Game development is a collaborative art, and game teams, large or small, are involved in complex and innovative work that requires every bit of social skill you can muster” (pg 412). This is crucial to many lines of work and is particularly important in game design. Games are a very artistic and technologically advanced form of entertainment, so it is no surprise that it takes a well structured team to create the games we know and love. 

As games develop and become larger franchises led by several teams of developers and publishers, we see how these different groups can sometimes have conflict on the larger stage. For instance, the entire ordeal with the Sonic movie showed how publishers trying to sell a game franchise in a certain way can have immense conflict with the original designer’s intent. We have also seen games not make it to being finished or having a well deserved sequel, not because of bad quality fo the game but because of the team structures within companies falling apart (for me this includes Fable IV and the full version of PT, but i am sure all os us have games in mind that deserve more than what they got because of inside company issues). This is one of the many examples of a skill that goes unnoticed when it is working well (the skill being teamwork) and then standing out like a sore thumb when it is not done well. This makes it so the importance of teamwork in the creation of games (or anything else on a large scale really) can be severely underestimated in terms of its importance. 

I would also like to conclude this blog post by mentioning how excited I am for all of the memes in the discord server as we retreat to it due to the pandemic, please do not hold back (but also don’t be a dumb edgelord please, wholesome memes are so much better). At what point are we in a Black Mirror episode? 

Works Cited:

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.

In her conclusion of the chapter we discussed in class this week, Fullerton wrote an interesting paragraph on the future of dramatic elements in games, saying “Although the media palette of game design has grown to rival film and television, in general the emotional impact of games still has not achieved the depths it is capable of and that will make it recognized as an important dramatic art form.  We are only now seeing game designers reach for more sophisticated goals in terms of their narrative tone, significance of theme, character depth, and overall dramatic intent” (Fullerton pg 122). I find this particularly interesting considering the seemingly large array of emotional, dramatic games that already exist. It leaves me to wonder what types of depth and emotional impact she was picturing when writing this conclusion. Personally, it is difficult to picture something with more emotional impact than some of the narrative driven games I have played. This list includes The Walking Dead, Detroit: Become Human, The Last of Us, and many other tear jerkers that exist in the gaming space. 

I thought the game we played in class, Virginia, was a particularly interesting example of a dramatic game. It was intriguing because with narrative games that have mechanics and storylines similar to Virginia, there are very detailed and realistic (and expensive) graphics to portray the story, sometimes making it feel more like a movie. However, in Virginia, there were very simplistic graphics we might expect from a mobile or online game. Regardless, the game still provided a very beautiful scene and an intriguing story despite its differences from similarly story-driven games. On top of this, the lack of dialogue was a very brave and artful decision in the development of the game because it adds elements that make its simple yet not-so-simple style work in many different ways. The way the game is set up leaves the perfect amount of confusion for a layer, creating a trail to follow on a journey to find out what is going on, even without the use of fancy graphics and dialogue. 

Works Cited:

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.

Virginia. Variable State. Published by 505 Games. 2016. 

An interesting topic that came up in class discussion based on this past week’s material was how different types of spaces in games create such unique experiences, particularly in horror games. Fullerton wrote in this week’s chapter, “As opposed to physical or mental obstacles and conflict from direct competition with other players, another type of game conflict can come from dilemma-based choices that players have to make” (pg 86). This made me think of how horror games make the player decide in their panic running from/trying to escape whatever evil is after them whether or not to stop and read the documents that essentially have the games entire storyline in them (which most people miss because they get too spooked and are just trying to survive). 

Additionally, I enjoyed Jenkin’s discussion of narrative in games and also related it to how horror typically operates in gaming spaces. On the topic of environmental storytelling and spatial narrative he writes, “they can provide a staging ground where narrative events are enacted; they may embed narrative information within their mise-en-scene; or they provide resources for emergent narratives” (Jenkins). This particularly made me think of one of my favorite narrative games, Layers of Fear. In this game, the player navigates an old house with a very unsettling and spooky environment. The architecture of the house makes no sense and sometimes you would walk out of s room just to walk into the same room but slightly different, or leave a room and realize it is not the same place in the house as where you had entered from. Eventually the house changes to a full-on fever dream space with doors opening to mile high drops and melting rooms. The point of this narratively, as the player slowly realizes throughout the game, was that you, as the player, were experiencing the memories of a painter who had descended into madness from his horrible past and guilt that was stuck wondering in his own home, doomed to repeat terrible memories in a terrifying manner forever. This type of story experience would not have been possible in regular film, and truly showed the narrative power that games can have. 

Works Cited:

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.

Jenkins, Henry. Game Design as Narrative Architecture. 2004.

Fullerton ended the prototype chapter writing, “And most importantly, making a prototype gives you the freedom to experiment—and through experimentation comes innovation” (pg 235). I thought that this profound statement has a deep connection to the game we partially played through in class, The Beginner’s Guide. While looking through the games by Coda, that Daniel Wreden carefully stitched together to tell a story and make a point about his friend, I think we saw a lot of both experimentation and innovation in this process. 

I found Wreden’s game to be particularly beautiful and intimate in a very unique way when it comes to games. He was clearly exploring a personal relationship with his friend Coda while reflecting on the timeline of his game-making career. It was extremely bold, especially considering how rare and difficult it is to make a game that is so outwardly and unapologetically  about himself and a friend (here i am referring to this type of expression as rare in games compared to other forms of art). Games like this very much expand the idea of what a game can/should be, beyond the typical selling points of interactiveness and enjoyability.

The question that came up in class about whether or not a player should understand what they are playing is a particularly interesting question to me. As a player I would like to say yes, I want to understand everything about what I am participating in. However, as a creator, there are many things that I express (in the creation of games and in other forms of self expression and art) that I know I cannot convey to others who will see that content and try to understand it. I don’t believe it is possible to understand all of the complexities that come with any form of expression, especially those that can be as extensive as an abstract game that somebody made. The reality is that forms of expression are not always comprehensible or understandable and they are not meant to be, even if we want them to be. 

Works Cited:

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.

Wreden, Daniel. The Beginner’s Guide. Steam. 2015.

Our activities this week with card and board games really put an emphasis on the delicate balance of all the parts of a game that is required for an optimal gaming experience. Fullerton points out these different parts in the reading: players, objectives, procedures, rules, resources, boundaries and outcome (Fullerton, 2019). It was interesting to see this played out while playing games in class and changing one of the rules. In my first game, Exploding Kittens, we changed some of the rules that took away elements of fairness and made the game more chaotic and frustrating. 

It is also very interesting to see how different analog games get players to be more invested with the premise of the game. While this is typically easier to point out in video games, with board and card games it is sometimes more subtle. Fullerton describes that “The base-level e ect of the premise is to make it easier for players to contextualize their choices, but it’s also a powerful tool for involving players emotionally in the interaction of the formal elements” (Fullerton, 2019 pg 45). I found the premise of Secret Hitler to be especially effective in this area. It took the historical context of the rise of fascism and political contexts and turned it into an immersive experience within a game full of strategy and deceit. 

I hope to effectively incorporate this balance in my first project where I plan to combine the rules of fairly basic traditional games (checkers and original card games like war) and a more immersive premise and/or story behind the set of rules and mechanics in the game. It seems to be more difficult to do so with analog games considering you cannot animate characters and add dialogue to tell a story, but some games have achieved quite engaging player experiences with analog games (such as Secret Hitler, Midnight Ultimate Werewolf, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Coup, etc). I am hoping to achieve a medieval aesthetic with my design that will play into the already seemingly royal nature of traditional playing cards and combine it with rules that set up a procedural rhetoric reflecting upon the political actions of medieval times. 

Works Cited:
Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.

Our discussion this week on Robert Ebert’s opinion as video games not being art is one I wanted to continue discussing in the discussion post. He discusses the different definitions of art and explains that he believes games cannot be art because they can be won but the other forms of expression he considers art “can only be experienced” (Ebert, 2010). This led to the obvious question: What is a video game other than an experience? Not only can games be an experience but can also be a particularly unifying one. People who make games are carefully crafting a balance of incentives and rules with whatever platform (digital, cards etc) to create a human experience that can be spread and enjoyed. Any definition of art that does not include the delicate creation of games is not one that I would refer to. Art is all about the human experience and how it is expressed to other humans. Anything at all that is used to express the agony and joy of conscious existence is art, whether it be ancient paintings of cave walls or the character models in a video game. 

I found that Brian Upton’s piece about the definition of a game and the idea of what play really is, supports the argument that I made above. In “The Aesthetic of Play” Upton wrote about how games had the special ability to transcend cross-cultural boundaries and allow a uniquely crafted experience to spread amongst many populations. He explains that games are essentially a set of boundaries (rules) with freedom to move around within those boundaries. As Upton explains his way into this definition, we see the complexity and great variety that comes with games and how they function and can change over time from person to person. The elaborate intricacy of games and the immense diversity of how they operate is artful within itself. Humans are complicated creatures with endless ways to express themselves and share experiences with each other. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the complex idea of play is included in what is to be considered art. 

Works Cited:

Ebert, Robert. 2010. Video Games Can Never Be Art. Received from http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art

Upton, Brian. Aesthetic of Play. Received from https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5e00ea752296c/5331553?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Aesthetic%2520of%2520Play.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200202T024633Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLTYPZRQMY%2F20200202%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=b63d1ddd895ef2624917be0cc9687d93844ef84ea808ca49b5820b84c64a14f3