Viewpoints are very essential in combination with the controls and visual  interface for creating the overall game interface. In my opinion, viewpoints have always strayed me away from certain games. I felt the style of top downs was too unappealing to the bigger models of first person and third person games. Back to perspectives, many text based games do not use a viewpoint, while many modern games can have anything from a top down, first person, side view or third person. It’s interesting how these different views can enhance or restrict a player. Top down normally allows the player to see much more than what their playable character might be seeing. Some games don’t even have a set character like Civilization where you may have a movable army, but you aren’t connected to them in the same way as a narrative with one playable character. Different angles can allow you to relate more with the character or less depending on what the narrative needs. 

Viewpoints can also change how mechanics feel, which can benefit or hinder the gameplay. Mentioned in class, Dead by Daylight has the killer with a first person perspective, while the survivor is in third person. This allows the survivor to spot the killer faster and enables the killer to focus on searching for their targets. Another example, Night in the Woods was a side view and this worked with the mechanics given because the game was a platformer and 2D. Side view might also make things easier for a small group of developers versus a 3D platformer like Super Mario Galaxy, which is third person and had a large group of people to produce.

Overall, games can go with or without a certain perspective. Text based games don’t need angles, but many games today do and which ones that are chosen can affect the mechanics and feel. If the angle is an artistic choice, mechanics might have to be altered if the gameplay doesn’t feel proper with the new angle. “The view point is then “both a formal and a dramatic design element (Fullerton, 263).” It is a mechanic and a part of the storytelling.

Works Cited

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.

In Scott Benson’s presentation about the game Night in the Woods, where he discussed the process of design behind the game, he mentioned the use of nostalgia in its style and themes. The use of nostalgia has been proliferant in today’s culture, from decade-old references to utilizing art and aesthetics from a time period a few decades back. In games, a lot of games developed independently use a pixel art style both for the nostalgic value that reminds one of older games as well as the ease of use due to its limited nature. 

In his presentation on Night in the Woods, Benson mentions designing the game based on the punk culture that he was a part of, and how there were very few games around that type of culture. He also mentions the lack of games that have Western Pennsylvania as a setting. This brings to mind the fact that there are groups that are not represented in a lot of games, or are not the focus of the games’ story or themes. The decision to go against the age old grain to represent groups not frequently represented can be seen as a rejection of nostalgia at the same time. In Benson’s presentation, he also specifically mentions that the game addresses the dangers of nostalgia in spite of its allure. 

In the game Night in the Woods, the themes of nostalgia are present in how the story focuses on Mae returning to her hometown after being away in college, and seeing how the town has changed and stayed the same. Mae is treated with familiarity by residents of the town, and she often points out memories made from places and things that she encounters while back at her hometown. However, there is a darker undertone and a feeling of alienation, due to the fact that she has been away for some time. Nostalgia by itself is exclusionary, as it puts things from the past in a disproportionately positive light, and portrays things in the modern day as inferior to the past. This is obviously problematic, as no time period, past or present, can be seen as objectively 100% superior from one or the other.

Sources:

Benson, Scott, director. Nuke Possum Springs: A Night in the Woods Design Postmortem. Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzhe45Q8780.

This week in class, we talked about perspectives in video games. Fullerton describes the different perspectives seen in video games, such as top down, isometric, side view, first-person and third-person. Each perspective has its own gameplay elements. Top down perspective provides a fixed overhead angle where the game is played. An example of this type of perspective is Bloons Tower Defence, a tower defence game where you can place structures and defend from incoming balloons. The camera is fixed on the map, and the perspective doesn’t move, which will allow the player full use of the play space. Side view is self explanatory, a side camera perspective that is used a lot with puzzle or platform games. Side-scrollers, like the 2D Mario games are an example of this perspective as the camera allows the player to see either side of the character.
Isometric perspective allows more of a top-down point of view, but doesn’t show the entire play space. This lets the player move the camera around the play space. Games like League of Legends use an isometric perspective to show a limited space around the player’s character. It also allows the player to freely spectate the map, which can be helpful to see how your teammates are doing or where the enemy is. First-person perspective is the point of view of a character from their eyes. This greatly restricts the view of the player’s surroundings, but it allows for much more detail and precision aiming. Counter Strike is an example of this perspective and requires precision aim to shoot opponents. Third-person perspective is the over-the-shoulder view of a character. This allows the player to see more of their environment and the actions their character performs. Assassin’s Creed uses the third-person perspective to show when the characters are hidden, allows the character to face forward while looking behind them, and it shows a more comfortable view of the parkour mechanics. These mechanics would not be as successful with a first person perspective. Mirror’s Edge tried to use a first-person perspective for a parkour game, and although it works, it’s not as easy to look at compared to the third-person perspective.

Sources:

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

On this Tuesday in game design class first, we talk about the different usage of player perspective in games. For example, there is a top-down perspective that also can be described as a God-like perspective. Mostly is used in strategy games in this particular game playstyle the player usually needs to build up armies or buildings. Which in this case it makes sense for the game designer to use the top-down perspective allow the player to have a better angle and perspective to oversee what is going on throughout the whole map. Some times the camera angle will change during the gameplay depends on what the game designer what to show the player. For example in league of legends, there is one champion name Jhin when he uses his ultimate perspective will change, allow him to snipe the enemy champion on a wider top-down perspective compare to the normal top-down perspective we have when we normally play league of legends. Another point we can talk about for camera angle this topic is probably the game designer want the player to feel they are immersed in the environment they play in. We want to let the player feel like he is the character he is controlling right now. Another usage for camera angle is that in a horror game the camera angle is limited when you can not see a lot of things, it makes you feel fear because you will never know what kind of things or event will pop out from nowhere. Later on, we watch a video in class it’s related to a game called night in the woods. In the “Night in the woods” this game, the character stays the same throughout the design process. The game designer which also is the artist of the character have the relationship relate to the character. In the video, the talk about this game is based on their personal experience. So when we watch the live stream gameplay in-game there is a lot of conversation going on between the character we are playing and other characters in the game. Which the author of the game try to let us understand the background story of night in the woods this game. The personal experience the game designer had is when they were in their 20s right now they are in their 30s they have time to reflect and think back those experience and put them in night in the woods. Overall this game is very unique it’s personal to the game designer, and as players, we understand more stories about the designer background as we play through the game.

Last week in class, we played/watched Fortnite and discussed the game’s design choices and system dynamics.  It was especially interesting to note how the dynamics of the game changed as time went on. In the beginning, the zone was very big, and we didn’t see as many opponents.  However, as time went on, the zone would get smaller and smaller, bringing enemies closer and closer. We witnessed this firsthand during the playthrough. Many battle royale games choose to use this mechanic, including H1Z1, Warzone (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare), and a lot more, which I found to be very interesting.  This helps limit the amount of time per game, which had me wondering: what other methods are even out there to ensure the match doesn’t last forever yet still only have one winner? Making the map get smaller is the most obvious mechanic, which was interesting to think about. However, there were also other game mechanics that were very interesting.  People can be toxic by throwing downed players around before they are revived; however, the further you get into the game, the less time and space you have to do that. Additionally, building is a key feature in Fortnite that separates the game from other battle royales. You can build stairs, walls, floors, and ramps in the game. Some players have mastered building to the point where they can do it incredibly fast, and by the end of the game, you see huge build fights between players attempting to reach high ground.  However, enemies from a distance can simply shoot down the builds in order to knock out the players when they fall down – although this may be hard to do when there are so many builds holding everything together. 

Overall, the game has many interesting mechanics.  They have added movement by adding helicopters and launch pads into the game (which at one point were taken out to decrease methods of movement).  This helps when the zone is closing in fast, and is especially important in the middle of the game when you need to travel the farthest distances. As time goes on, the distance you need to travel gets smaller, but the danger gets a lot larger!

Fortnite. Battle Royale Mode, PC, 2020.

During our classes before the break, we discussed Fullerton’s chapter about publishing and developing games. For developers, it’s generally up to them to create the game from scratch, and there are many roles within the development team such as programming, writers, artist, playtest, art, music, actors and more. For them to work closely and effectively, they must share equal amount of contribution and recognition, be as diverse and inclusive as possible. We can see the result of it in their games as well, like how the art, music, or story are the highlights of the game. As for publishers, it’s their job to make sure the developers meet deadlines, promote the game, and set expectations. Just like how developers need to work together, it’s also important that both the publishers and developers are cooperating for the game to succeed, or else the game can fail because it’s rushed, messy, or unfinished.

An example we mentioned was the Bungie and Activision split, which I’m very familiar with. Together, they made the games Destiny 1 and 2, but the criticisms were always about how rushed, easy and lackluster the game felt. Bungie originally had more plans for Destiny 1, but Activision wanted to push out a sequel as soon as possible along with more DLCs/season passes, which caused Bungie to rush crucial things like the story, game mechanics and loot variety. When Destiny 2 released, we saw a lot of returning elements from the first game, making it look like recycled content or a downgrade. After their split last year, Bungie now has full control over the Destiny franchise, and they promised its players they will continue to develop the game at their own pace and vision.

On Thursday’s class, we played the game Overwatch as an example of team-based games. Similar to Fire Emblem and board games we played, we had to choose a class/character of unique skills that can benefit the overall team like being the healer or tank. Through communication and strategizing, we’re able to take advantage of our characters’ roles, work together and win against the opposing team. I thought Overwatch was a perfect choice for what we learned that week. The game is very diverse and inclusive, the developers are always communicating with its players, values teamwork, and many there’s many indicators in game to show objectives or abilities.

Sources

Destiny 1, Activision, 2014

Destiny 2, Bungie, 2017

Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment, 2015

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.

In this blog I will be talking about digital prototyping from chapter 8 in the book Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, by Tracy Fullerton. I found this chapter one of the most interesting chapters to read. First, prototyping in game design “are made with minimal art or sound” (Fullerton p. 241). Prototyping will help developers understand what will work and what will not work in their games. It is also important to note that doing too many things to a prototyped game is not recommended. Prototypes should be built off one another little by little. Revisions to a prototyped game should be made so that all the components are functioning as planned.

While physical prototyping is a great place to start, digital prototyping can help further the development process even more. For instance, you can use 2D/3D software to make a digital setting, such as a location in the game. You can use the software to make a certain art style of your choice. If you want to have a dark scary game, you can utilize the tools to make it look that way. There is software that will help users with perspectives, such as character, scene, and lighting perspective. While there are a lot more things that go into digital game making, these are some important things a game designer needs to consider when making a game.

What I like about prototyping is that you get to see your work with your own eyes. In our first project, I made a Pokémon board game, which had a physical prototype. I first drew out what I wanted the board to look like. I then drew out how many tiles I should put in each area to make sure everything was well balanced. Once I finalized my setup, I went on photoshop and pieced together the final map would be. Without my prototype, I would have made a lot of mistakes along the way of editing my game in Photoshop. What I learned in this chapter is when you are working on a prototype, make sure you do not complicate things. Making things as simple as possible and working your way up in small steps will make the process of game development a lot easier.

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.

This week in class, we discussed information systems and dynamics in games, and how these systems can differ in games to convey what a player can and cannot do, or what a player is meant to do. These systems can be utilized to enhance a game with more information for the player, or can be intentionally taken away to give the player more of a sense of urgency or “being in the dark”. Some information systems can be quite simple, such as with checkers. Each space on a checker board is color coded, to show where players can and cannot move their pieces, and conveys the idea of diagonal movement through its layout. Some information systems, however, can be quite complex, such as with a game like ‘World of Warcraft’. This game tasks the player with using several sources of information at once to overcome their obstacles, such as knowing your spells and how they are cast using your hotkeys, what is nearby on the minimap, what your opponent is capable of, where your teammates are in relation to you, among other resources (quest log, quest markers, etc.).  These information systems become dynamic, however, through several elements of game play. A good example of a dynamic system comes from the popular Battle Royale games of the past few years, such as ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Apex Legends’. These games have very similar information systems to begin, such as sharing a markable map and minimap, but diverge from the genre’s staples in gameplay differences. In ‘Apex Legends’, a valuable source of information comes from the expansive in game ping system, in which a player can ask the team to move to a certain position, warn of enemies, or alert teammates of certain items they find. While ‘Fortnite’ has also implemented this system, ‘Apex Legends’ goes further in its information system by giving the player choice of using an incredible amount of pings, such as “Looting here”,  “Defending this position”, “This area has been comprimised”, or the option to take back a ping, in case a mistake is made. This system changes dynamically as fights are had, showing grenade warnings, ability cooldowns, options of healing items found on the map, and the variety of characters to play as, with, or against.  Dynamic systems apply to not only information systems, but other areas of games, such as random events, or an evolving world such as in Animal Crossing. One day, you might find a perfect peach hanging on one of your trees, or perhaps Gulliver will wash up on the shores (again). Without a little variety in games, every round or match would start to feel the same. Making a game feel truly alive can just take a little random chance.

Dynamic and Engaging Music

This week in class we talked about system dynamics. This is the complex systems in a game that the player interacts with during gameplay. This could be something like the map shrinking in a battle royale game to keep players moving closer together and engaging in fights. This could also be progression in a game; as you continue playing, you can unlock more tools and objects that give you more variety in the way you play. In Grand Theft Auto, you start out with the beginner tools like a pistol and a small car, but as you progress, you can unlock planes and tanks and explosives which lets you be much more creative with your gameplay.

We also talked about information systems, which are tools in game that give you information in the game. In class, we used Fortnite as an example. Things like the minimap showing where the storm is coming from, keybinds for different gear slots, and the friendly health and shield bars are all examples of information systems. One game that I think does a good job with their information systems is Dead Space. In this game, there is no Heads Up Display, so every information system is shown in game. Instead of displaying your health as a number in the corner of the screen, your health is shown as a green liquid on the back of your character’s suit. Instead of an ammo counter, you have to aim your weapon to see how much ammo you have left. When you open the map, your character will open it up in game. I think this is a very interesting way to make the game more dynamic and immersive.

I think Will Wright’s talk “Dynamics for Designers” at GDC helped explain how these systems are implemented in games. He talked about game space, which is the open possibility space that the player can interact with. This would include things like the map space, character skill trees, NPCs, enemy players and so on. The game space can also be dynamically iterated on to create an even more complex game. A big game recently that has a dynamic game space is Animal Crossing. This game has different elements that have been iterated on to create a complex, fun game. There are daily fossils that you can dig up, specific fish that you can only catch in certain times of the year, turnips that you can sell and make a profit, all on top of the map design and customization with building bridges, terraforming and placing items around the map. All of these systems come together into one complex game space that makes a game that has you coming back to play every day.

Sources:

Wright, Will. Dynamics for Designers. Vimeo, 2003, vimeo.com/193267720.