We discussed what our plans were for our final group project. My group project is called “Inertia-D”. In the beginning, we were thinking of either making another board game or a text game, perhaps using twine. After some brainstorming, we decided to make a turn-based racing game that utilizes dice rolls. Since the theme of the game is racing, the audience would be pretty much anyone. There wouldn’t be that much of a story since it’s basically just a racing game. The game most likely will only require chips & cards to represent the gear that they are on, pieces to represent the players, some dice and a racetrack board. Of course as we develop the game, there can be more elements added to the game.

The racers will be able to track which gear they’re in with chips and a card, allowing them to move extra spaces the higher the gear, however, tighter turns require them to either slow down before reaching the turn or successfully rolling a drift on the turn. Failure to slow down or drift will cause them to spin out and miss their next turn, allowing other players to pass them. The car’s gear determines how many spaces the driver is able to move per turn within a range of 1 to whichever gear they’re switched to (1-4).

Turning requires you to be within a specific gear or lower depending on how tight the turn is. You would have to stop before the turn and shift your gear card down, then end your turn and wait your next one before you can turn the corner, this gives your opponent an opening to bypass you. Deciding to “drift” instead of shift gears will have the player roll the fraction found between their current gear and the gear required for a turn (gear 2 car turning a gear 1 turn requires a D12 roll where you must score 1-6 to succeed. Gear 3 car turning a gear 1 turn requires a D12 roll where you must score 1-3. Gear 4 car turning a gear 1 turn requires you to score 1-2 of a D12.), Upon failure of a drift, the car will spin out and their turn is skipped next. Upon a successful drift, the driver will roll a D4 and move that many spaces ahead past the turn. If the roll was below half of the highest value, then the drift is successful.

In conclusion, this game relies on randomness, however players still need to make decisions based on the situations they are in. Players can go for either a high-risk high-reward move or for a safer move.

In the talk “Nuke Possum Springs: A Night in the Woods Design Postmortem” given by Scott Benson at the Game Developer’s Conference in 2018, he discusses the discussion of the ups, downs, design philosophies, and decisions that went into making “Night in the Woods”. Benson discusses how he was an artist first and foremost and met the co-director of Night in the Woods over email after he had seen one of Benson’s vines. Through the work, he discusses how Night in the Woods started as this mystical town where the main character had a cape that fluttered and he takes the audience through the whole storyboard process that goes into making a video game. The two decide to take their concept and completely shift it into a new story. This was spurred on by Benson watching a movie called “Return of the Living Dead” which had characters that reminded him of his friends from when he was a teenager. He decided to move the art in the direction of anthropomorphic characters due to the “playful subversiveness” of their nature.

Having anthropomorphic characters in a game centered around a somewhat realistic depiction of life in a dead end town centering around young adults contrasts with the childish and cartoony nature of how anthropomorphic characters are usually used in traditional media. During the design process for “Night in the Woods”, Benson states “We want this town where you can walk around, we want to make this big world that you can explore, and we also knew that we wanted you to spend a lot of time in these places going back and forth, building this routine.”.

Benson didn’t just expand the length of the town, he stated how in games like “Fallout 3”, he’d be jumping around like this hero, so he wanted to extend the world with more verticality, allowing the player to bounce off of mail boxes, cars, windowsills, and even power lines, extending the height at which you can explore this town and really get into every possible space of it. I believe the most valuble thing to take away from this talk would be how games can forge a connection between the creator and the player, how even when playing as a cartoon cat, we can feel human emotion drilled deep into this game’s narrative and world.

Source: https://youtu.be/Xzhe45Q8780

We discussed what our plans were for our group project. My group project is called “Capitalism” and it revolves around the theme of poverty and income inequality. In terms of the audience, most people should be able to relate to the game because everyone, to a certain degree, falls into an economic class, whether that be low, middle or high. We initially got our inspirations from Monopoly, but we wanted our game to be different enough in terms of mechanics and overall experience. We want players to feel the gap between the lower income class and the high income class, so we decided to make two types of characters. As a result, there are three lower income characters and one high income character. The primary mechanics follow the use of character cards. Each player starts with a card detailing their character’s name and economic status.

The board itself consists of three rings of sixteen spaces, with each ring representing a separate economic class. The three lower class players begin along the outer ring of the board making their way clockwise towards the center while one player plays as the upper class along the inner ring of the board, laying traps to prevent the others from reaching his inner zone. Life events, which influence the economic status of our characters, exist for both upper class and lower class and take the form of cards that contain drastically different effects. While some life events are positive and lead to gaining effects which help you get ahead, some hinder you during gameplay. Beyond traps and life events are perk cards, which can be acquired by landing on their respective spaces. Perks are one-time-use cards that remain within the player’s inventory until revealed to everyone else; they could boost your rolls, negate traps, and could be played strategically to assure victory.

The upper class character has to race three times around the inner circle while the three lower class characters have to complete a full circle around the outermost ring, middle ring, and then innermost ring. Once a lower class character reaches the innermost ring, they become an upper class character, and any lower class life events that may still be affecting them are discarded. They may keep their perk cards, however, to use until they have no more. Once you’re an upper class character, the same upper class rules now apply to you – you can buy traps to prevent others from finishing the circle before you. Your traps, which cost one influence point, will affect every other player on the board who lands on it (with the exception of yourself). You may also refer to the upper class ability reference sheet, which details a variety of rewards you may purchase with influence points.

Accessibility is an important step in the game design process. When designing a video game, one should keep in mind that no one person is the same, and some might be at a mental, physical, or biological disadvantage to those that play your game as an average consumer. One needs to think about what kind of limitations there could be when playing through your game, what if the player needs a guide to help them through the game like waypoints and quest markers on a compass? Sometimes the issue might rely with hardware. Standard game controllers require two hands with two thumbs and two index fingers in order to play a game, however, what if the player was missing a digit? What if hey were missing an entire hand?

To solve this issue, in 2009, the charity AbleGamers worked alongside Evil Controllers, a custom game controller manufacturer to design one of the first adaptive controllers to simulate a Dualshock 3 and a 360 Gamepad. The result was the Adroit Switchblade, a small black box complete with 3.5mm ports mapped to every input of the controller. AbleGamers state on their page “Our efforts would lead to a big push in the community for accessibility as gamers with severe muscular and physical disabilities, such as muscular dystrophy, would be able to play video games for the first time…”.

In May 17, 2018, Microsoft would unveil their new “Xbox Adaptive Controller” (XAC), announced on Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The Xbox Adaptive Controller works with both PC and Xbox One and uses the same 3.5mm jack system as the Adriot Switchblade, the difference being now the Xbox Adaptive Controller has two touchpads that can be mapped to any input. The device also includes a switch for three custom profiles that could be set for different games to allow for easier inputs with some depending on the type of game and their controls. The price of the device is $100, making it 1/3 cheaper than the Adriot Switchblade. The Xbox Adaptive Controller to-date is the most innovative and cost-effective method for hardware accessibility in games to-date.

Source: https://ablegamers.org/xbox-adaptive-controller-the-evolution-of-accessibility/

In the talk “Balancing League of Legends for Every Player, from Bronze to Bengi” given by Greg Street at the Game Developer’s Conference in 2017, he discusses the ideology behind balancing a video game and designing it to include both low skill players and high skill players. Through the work, he discusses the example of “AI-Dependant Power”, citing examples such as Heimerdinger from “League of Legends”, The Engineer from “Team Fortress 2”, and Torbjorn from “Overwatch”. Greg Street would go on to explain “The problem with AI power, in this case, the turrets, (but it also could be like your character has a pet) is that AI power doesn’t scale really well with skill level. If you think of the power as a pie chart, the AI part of that takes up a really big part of that pie chart… So as developers, we kind-of have to have to choose where we turn those turrets…”.

The issue with AI implementation into an competitive environment would be scaling it so the computer is a formidable foe to both novice and experienced players without giving the player controlling the AI too much to just sit back and rely on. This becomes an issue where if the turret is too powerful and kills too easily, then it’s difficult for everyone at the floor of the skill chart. If it was catered towards them, then the turret wouldn’t have any viable use in competitive play. The goal of the game designer is to find the porridge that tastes just right, the middle ground that can attract both novice and experienced players towards both being an opponent to the turret and playing as the turret.

Greg Street also brings up Latency and how that could affect how others play. He says “We recently did a study to look at play rates and win rates of certain league champions according to different ping rates. We found that places like Korea (which has really good internet) actually allowed players to use different champions and have different win rates than players in the US…”. This provides an interesting dilemma on how the designer would account for the various internet speeds of people around the world. One example to mitigate this issue is to extend the window for attacks or provide some sort of input delay.

Source: https://youtu.be/ii_Q4OCoHvU

Harassment in video games is a sensitive topic for many because it seems to spark more outrage on whether or not harassment exists in a virtual space harassment in video games is a sensitive topic for many because it seems to spark more outrage on whether or not harassment exists in a virtual space rather than the harassment themselves. I’d like to propose a video showcasing actual harassment received during several regulated competitive matches of “Counter-Strike: Source”.

The video in question is “Phoon too much for Zblock”, a classic bunnyhopping montage showing various clips of the titular player “phoon” using the ability to bunnyhop, a speedrunning tactic that tricks the game engine into believing you are perpetually in free fall by repeatedly jumping before the game can register you as grounded. “zblock” refers to the ESEA’s cheat detection plugin that recognizes if players are running scripts or not. Phoon wasn’t running any, just being good at timing his jumps perfectly and flanking the entire enemy team before they can make a push. This upset a lot of his opponents, most of them writing false reports to the ESEA in attempts to get him banned from competitive play, the first couple seconds of the video is a montage of the harassment he received “This kid pushes like a fucking idiot dude.” “I honestly hope this kid dies in his sleep tonight.”.

I believe this stems from a bigger issue in which toxicity exists wherever competition is. The addition of a screen name gives others anonymity, giving them a sense that they are separated from anything they say or do online, which is hardly true. This combined with the highly competitive nature of Counter-Strike and you have an extremely toxic environment that promotes poor teamwork and crying over a game instead of encouraging others to get better at it. I feel the way that phoon deals with it is extremely professional and positive, opting to make them eat their words by flying around the map “like a speed demon” and making a compilation of those same people trash talking them being swiftly shut down by both him and the ESEA admin who sees nothing wrong with phoon’s play. I believe we can all use “phoon too much for zblock” as a guide on how to properly deal with harassment in a game as opposed to retorting back with name calling and stooping to their level, or complaining about it online.

Source: https://youtu.be/SNvDUO42Hys

In the talk “Dynamics for Designers” given by Will Right at the Game Developer’s Conference in 2003, he discusses the ideology behind what makes video games work. His previous work on titles such as “Spore” and “The Sims” appear throughout his talk as examples of system dynamics and how players interact given specific variables. He covers the social stomach of a queen ant in relation to how propagation of information spreads throughout the human brain, where one is global which sends a tracer chemical to the local colonies to allow ants to know that the queen is still alive.

Will Right states in his talk that this relationship between ant colonies and their queen are a great analogue for the player responding to a game’s input. One example he states is in “Animal Crossing” for the Nintendo Gamecube where the player is constantly working with an NPC or another player. “You’re going around in Animal Crossing, a lot of times you’re gathering things, bringing them to somebody else. You can bring your card to somebody else’s Animal Crossing and give them a free treat. (For) the game players themselves, that propagation through agents is a main part of the game play”. “The Sims” is brought up as another example for propagation through agents, describing the large modding community that had sprung up due to dedicated fans adding their own skins. “For them, it’s like a meta-game on top of the sims, it’s a big part of the experience”.

Grouping is another form of social engineering driven by dynamic pressures. An example of this would be a conflict of some sort that pressures the player into joining a guild, partying up in an MMO, specializing their character in a specific class to be beneficial to the group as a whole. The whole act of grouping is dependent on “economies of scale”. Grouping based on classification exists in things like RTS games where you have to manage units. One more part of grouping is Attraction, which is made up of both flocking algorithms and schooling algorithms, both of which are themselves dependent on local and global communication.

Source: https://vimeo.com/193267720

For our third week of class, we discussed what our plans were for our first project. My project is centered around the concept of the desire to win instead of the action of winning, the competition driven and to what lengths people are drawn to with the grand prize of simply being declared the winner among their friends. The game itself is a simple card game like “Uno”, where players go around in hopes of emptying their hand, however, the odds aren’t in the favor of any players, but the game itself. Cards prolonging the span of the game, confusing rule sets, card management and manipulation of random status effects allow players to step on one another in order to win, only to be stepped on in the next turn, much like the Ouroboros, it’s a game of never ending torment, the cycle of the dullest game with the weakest prize can open others to do the most drastic things… I propose a modified “Uno” with cards designed for only the most masochistic player Draw +10 for everyone, Exodia the forbidden one, Monster Reborn, Land management from Magic The Gathering, Energy from Pokemon TCG, a complete hodge podge of the worst card game troupes into one awful experience. I had the pleasure to play this for a bit with some friends over steam and discord via Tabletop Simulator and we hated every second of it, that’s why I’m proud of it. It’s almost like a provocative art piece, made with the sole intent to ruin friendships. I believe competition is important, but it shouldn’t be the determining factor in the design of a game. I made this game with the idea that if I could hypothetically make an only competitive game, what kind of masochistic monstrosity could I create? I spent about a week designing the cards on photoshop and writing the rules to each special card, in all, I’d say that I’m pretty satisfied with the results. The game itself is designed to be played indefinitely and it’s an absolute chore to get through, ten out of ten, worst game I ever made.

Tracy Fullerton’s The Structure of Games discusses the differences between video games and other forms of media, along with what defines a game. Throughout the narrative piece, Tracy discusses the defining factor between a game and another form of media is that in a game, the player is participating within the game and has influence under the game’s outcome in some way. What makes video games so fun and enticing is player freedom and the ability to influence the game directly as an active participant. Within the chapter, Fullerton describes “With media, characters still have objectives, but the viewer does not. With games, the player does have specific objectives. Along with player involvement and objectives…”. The whole essence of a game is the interactivity between the player and the piece of media itself. Examples of this could include the dialogue wheel from “Mass Effect”, the Wikipedia-like dialogue between characters in “The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind”. Various games implement a multiple ending route via branching paths like “Bioshock” or “Shadow the Hedgehog”.

Other avenues of player interactivity usually stems in some karma system like “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” or “inFamous” where the players actions towards various NPCs, quests, and the world around them influence their public perception and determine their alignment throughout the game. Some actions might just be an aesthetic change like the ability to create a custom character such as in “Soul Calibur 6” and “Saints Row the Third”. Even extremely linear games like “Half-Life 2” or “Portal” allow player interaction through the lack of cutscenes, making it so the player is never pulled from the experience.

“Mordhau” is a fine example of how gameplay itself could immerse the viewer in the experience. Throughout the game, the player controls one soldier of many fighting over various objectives. There is no story, only multiplayer, but where the game shines is its combat, an entirely physics based system that determines the player’s swing by moving their mouse in the attack direction, timing their blocks with their enemy’s swing, parries, reposting, and even thrusting your weapon forward by scrolling up on the mousewheel or scrolling down to perform an overhead strike. Every action the player does that is mouse related has some effect on their combat, leaving the player to become immersed in the game by basic mouse interaction.

Robert Ebert’s Video Games Can Never Be Art is a sad piece. I can picture it being the ramblings of an old man past his prime, looking into a new field within his study with a gaze of dissociation and confusion. I can understand, I have grandparents who don’t like me playing video games. There comes the misunderstanding of what defines “art”, which is subjective. When one critiques whether something is or isn’t art, it becomes muddled with non-sequiturs and opinions as opposed to actual critiques on the artistic integrity of a given piece because art is inherently subjective.

An example of his bias would be in his choice to showcase “Waco Resurrection” as an example of videogames and how they can “Never be art” to his majority viewer base of movie goers. This is essentially the equivalent of showing “Birth of a Nation” to discredit every movie ever made, which is just a poor argument to be made. Most of the article is him talking about cave paintings and this crummy little indie game made by some guy in his 20s.

Robert Ebert points out in his article that the game “Braid” which has a mechanic where every time you die, you can rewind time and avoid death. I personally finished Braid and loved it, while Robert writes that “In chess, this is known as taking back a move, and negates the whole discipline of the game.” Now, I would agree with him if Braid were chess, but Braid is not chess. Braid’s level design is specifically set with the time reversal mechanic in mind to allow for puzzles to be completed in ways that make you think outside the box. Hearing “It’s like chess” just goes to show that he has no idea what he’s rambling on about because he has little to no investment what so ever.

In all, I believe Robert Ebert has his heart in the right place, but his lack of research and understanding for the medium sticks out like a sore thumb. He isn’t consistent in his sources and it shows through the various gaps between completely unrelated topics as he grabs at straws looking for any small shred of evidence to support his opinion.