Stages of development for a video game borrow a lot from the film industry and the traditional software industry.  It also depends on the size of the studio and if they release an early access version of the game.
From the film industry, in particularly animation large studios will have all the necessary steps such as that a major video game would need. With Screen testing and re shooting similar to quality assurance testing and fixing bugs found in that. Although one typically alters the narrative where bug fixing is altering the mechanics of a game. This is processes is usually done with a waterfall development cycle. Even large software companies are shifting away from this cycle of development. Due to it is hard to change and adapt and requires more capital upfront. As if it does not work then there is no way to find the problem until it is much too late. That is one reason large games will have catastrophic bugs left in a shipped game, such Mass Effect Andromeda. However, games with narratives often use this cycle because it needs to fit to a story.
However, usually indie games that are reliant on emergent gameplay to be entertaining use a form of agile development. Especially if the game was released in early access, assuming they are decent developers. This is because the game needs to be functional at the end of each sprint to be delivered to customers. This allows for game breaking bugs to be found and squashed early so they do not grow into larger issues. Gameplay can also change due to consistent feedback from the players and developers alike. However, using agile development in the cut throat world of the video game market can be dangerous. This is because the market is massive and consumers might look to different games. As by its nature of agile development it is unfinished upon release.  The game’s direction may change drastically enough for the developers to no longer have passion for the project. What is a common occurrence with agile development is a developer will release an early build and once they have the money, stop development. Thus, a lot of consumers are weary of agile development for games.

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

Dynamics of a game should evolve as the game play advances. In class we discussed the ring in fortnight how that closes. That changes how the game is played from more of a dangerous resource collecting game to a building and close quarters combat game.  A similar game with a clear defining moment in how the game is played differently is in Europa Universalis IV and the mechanic of absolutism.
In the early part of the game it is part of a slow build up. Expanding is possible but it has to be done with extreme care as it is expensive. It can take resources up from very important technologies, setting up a robust economy, and makes the player a direct target for other nations. There are negative multipliers to discourage blobbing fairly early.  Although the designers have it follow history fairly well with the Russians and Ottomans trying to expand their boarders fairly early and living with the penalties. With bonuses that would be beneficial to that.
However, with the late game mechanic of absolutism it quickly changes the dynamic of play. Smaller countries are able to take a lot of land extremely cheaply. Thus, if the player has set up their game correctly they would be able to capitalize on it effectively. It is in the players best interest to min-max for absolutism. The draw back at the point is a smaller more technologically advanced and more developed country fighting a larger more army with more people.
This change in game play does reflect history but also causes runaway power creep, which is a problem for all 4x games. This is a very decisive mechanic as it causes many players to stop their campaigns at the point in time. As it is evident they are the strongest on the map. However, it changes the game into one of min maxing the mechanics vs diplomacy and playing conservatively. With the end goal of trying to conquer as much land as possible. This is still a very hard accomplishment even as the strongest nation in the world.

Sources: https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Absolutism
Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.

Designing for accessibility is only a positive. It produces better overall products in games and out of games. Even with the help I can provide to those with disabilities that need the extra features, it also improves the game for everyone else. It demonstrates that the developer has thought more outside the box and thus will likely create a better product. But it gives players more options with how they want to play the game. For example, designing for a deaf person would also allow a player to experience the game while listening to music or without sound at all. While sound is an important aspect of a game once a game is published the player bought/ leases the product they should be able to experience how they want. Developers may have an intended way they would want it to be done but at is really up to the player how it should be done. This thinking has led to some what is now expected features such as the ability to remap controls, change the field of view, and disabling motion blur. These were once considered accessibility settings but now common place and have only improved.
It is also a futile effort preserve the integrity of the game. As if a player with enough technical know-how wants to change something part of the game it is going to happen. This can be seen with the decomplication project of Mario 64. Features are being added to the game that fundamentally alter it that as a byproduct that adds more accessibility features. Notably making it more accessible such as putting it online. There will be more due to a recent leak of Nintendo but the source code was not obtained legally.
The only caveat in which care should be taken for the integrity of the game is online games. Such a game with a minimal hud would make it harder for some players to play. However, it would not be too much in development time to make a server in which those settings are allowed such as ones that allow modifications.
Designing for accessibility helps the game overall as it allows for players to play how they want to or encouraging modding in a game.    

Source: https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5e00ea752296c/7614786?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Accessibility%2520and%2520Gaming%2520Action%2520Card.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200508T194044Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLTYPZRQMY%2F20200508%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=3ab5c0746a2607d4f69a512ca8707c6bfe63df8f10734f01498f060d742b1b1e

Balance in games is an incredibly hard thing to get right. As even in bored games you can still gain an advantage by which turn you start with. Such as the first turn advantage in chess. This complexity increases with video games as it is possible to scale up the world. Balance can also come at the cost of fun.
In a perfectly balanced game it is possible that it comes to grow stale. Balance in a video game is not equivalent to equality in character builds. If both players have the same opportunities and of equal skill it would be in their best interest to play as conservatively as possible. They would never gain an advantage or the perception of one which is important part to make a game fun. One example of this approach is 2fort sniper matches in TF2. Where it is a game more of reaction time vs anything else. A similar experience can be gained by 2 players dropping a ruler and trying to catch it faster.
Thus, imbalance is where fun is generated. It is possible have imbalance as a feature such as in Europa Universalis IV. Where each starting nation has its own unique set of challenges to overcome. But there are clearly easier nations to play as.
Imbalance is usually represented in a rock-paper-scissors type scenario. Where a player would have an advantage over one or the other. Balance comes in making sure all the scenarios all have an equal fighting chance over the other. Otherwise, there would be a meta defining game play which would all players would flock to in which you get stale game play. Even if the game play trends to the equaling of each player it is in the entropy that would still cause a game to be interesting. Such is the case with competitive Quake 3 as the starting position has players forcing to move as their opponent’s starting position has the counter to their advantage. However, each player trends towards an power quality although there is sufficient entropy in which skill differences are able to determine the match. 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii_Q4OCoHvU

Harassment in online games is something I am aware of that exists but something I have extremely limited experience with. Thus, in the second game project when I had to write the experiences of what it is like to have to deal with online harassment. I have two older brothers so in general I learned to have an extremely thick skin, to where pretty much any random third-party criticism doesn’t really bother me. Especially, anonymous people online. I wrote it inline with how I would react in the scenarios of just learning or muting people. It is definitely a valid strategy to handle the situation, is it works for me every time. Even if the narrative was short it was still effectively navigating the problem encountered in our game.
I think there is also a component in why I have a minimal experience with harassment in games I have experience with. For the past 6 years the only online games I have played are indie games with usually no more than 2000 active players at the same time. Then frequenting the same servers allows for not necessarily a community to form but you begin to recognize other frequent players. Also, most of the games tend to have a more mature audience as the skill curve is rather dramatic. People also go out of their way to help explain the mechanics of the game. It is also players in these games do not really stand for people attempting to harass anyone.
Another incredible deterrent for harassment is my profile name. I use my last name on online accounts. The risk of privacy leak is minimal but helps with dealing with harassment. It prevents me from doing anything as I have my name personally attached to what I am saying. Then people do not like to be mean to someone when it is an actual name. It has even led to pretty funny encounters as people will tell me stories of someone they know with that name or make jokes asking if I am Tony Hawks kid.

Source: Antidotal + classwork

The camera is important in defining what the game will be. It is how the player is able to visually see what is happening in the world. Therefore, one of the most crucial aspects of any video game. It also helps with immersion such as being able to look down and see a body in a first-person shooter. Many games follow a similar recipe in how place camera. However, there was experimentation as to how it should be handled. Especially in the early days of video games. Even going from a static frame to multiple panels in the earliest of games.
No game is a better example of this than Super Mario 64.  That was one of the first 3d platformers and had the unenviable task of introducing players how to navigate in a 3d world.  To achieve this, they made the camera a literal character in the world. By making it a character they were able to personify it. Personifying things and giving it a name, a trait makes people react far better towards things including an element in a game. Despite that it the most criticized aspect of the game in both modern and contemporary reviews. There is also a speed running exploit that is dependent on the camera. Therefore, it is taking a direct mechanical role in how game is played.
Another early game that was very influential on how the camera is perceived in the world is resident evil. It was extremely important in building the atmosphere of the game.  AS it was able to restrain the character and build tension. It was able to restrain the character as they were not able to see everything. In this restraint tension was built as it was impossible to know what was around a corner. Also, the further away you moved you physically got smaller and if the character was running towards the front of the screen they would get bigger. Although, in this case whatever was chasing the player would also grow in size thus the tension would increase.

Source: https://vimeo.com/193267720 and an in class discussion

Comparing two games demonstrates common characteristics for something to be a game. In Tracy Fullerton’s The Structure of Games chapter 2 compares Quake and Go fish. Both these games are seemingly unrelated but they have a similar structure. It is possible to gamify or consider more things to be games following the same structure. Such as, getting a game of Quake to work can be just as much of a game as the intended purpose of the video game of Quake. It would have the elements that make a game with varying levels of difficulty. The base case is having it installed with the official install has all parts of a game but it is extremely easy and therefore negligible. However, if the computer system is supposed to be a locked down system or if the player does not have access to a screen or mouse it becomes more of a game.
 First, the game is on the computer or it is not which means “there is the certainty of a measurable and unequal outcome of some kind” (Fullerton 37). The conflict is largely artificial as there it is not entirely necessary to have it run on a system. In the adversarial computer system one player sets up the challenge and did not know when the other player would challenge them. The rules can be such in a way that effectively handicap the player in order to create a conflict and a challenge. Such as limiting when the action can take place as to not arouse suspicion, which is a very common element in games. Then there is the extra excitement of adding achievements. Such as once the computer is able to run the game to be able to connect it to the network and lan the game.
If there is an adversarial system set up there are many components to make an activity to be considered a game. Even in something that is traditionally is not considered a game be embody many of the elements of one.

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

Last week we discussed accessibility in gaming. We discussed accessibility not only in the context of the availability of the game to different consumers but also in the context of people with disabilities. We discussed physical access to games while playing jackbox games. I had actually played jackbox games for the first time the week prior. It has become a favourite of my family during this time because we can play remotely with each other. We get on zoom and the person hosting the game shares their screen and everyone else can play remotely on their phone. This game is very accessible for us to play. Physical accessibility can also come in the context of affordability. Some games can coat $5 and are generally affordable to people. Many console games are upwards of $60 and also require the purchase of an expensive console. This can be hard for some people to afford.

Accessibility in games needs to also be thought of in the context of game design and playability for people with a large range of physical capabilities. Last week we looked at the commercial for an Xbox remote for people with physical disabilities. Although this remote did help people play there is also the problem with affordability. We also played the game Blindscape. This was a game that tackled the idea of accessibility in the concept of the game itself.

This week in class our professor played through a game called When Rivers Were Trails. The game explains through gameplay the life of the indigenous people and their communities during the 1890s. This game was made for educational purposes, said the developer of the game Elizabeth LaPensee. I loved the idea of this game and the intentions for it. It’s a great way for people to drop stereotypes and certain profiles they had about Native Americans. The game has a very simple mechanic, you just have to drag your mouse around and click. A game that is related to When Rivers Were Trails is Oregon Trail another educational computer game about 19th century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. But When Rivers Were Trails are just about the life of the Indigenous during this time. You are about to see both perspectives of life in the 19th century. 

Games like these are amazing and help teach people new things in a different way than just sitting down and reading a book. I know that I was the type of kid that had and still does have trouble learning something new if it just requires me to read or listen to a lecture about the subject. I learn better if I’m able to do it myself or see it. So video games like these were great for me while growing up. And it shows that games aren’t just made for entertainment purposes. They can help to be a great educational tool. And on a side note I have to do an essay for my Indian image on film class and talk about how they are represented in cartoons, animations, and videos, so this is another game that I can talk about. I really didn’t think there were any beside some games that just feature them. But this game will help with how well the culture and lifestyle of indigenous people is presented in the game.

This week we discussed the value of games in education, in addition to gender roles, sexual orientation, and romance options in video games. To begin the week, we talked about “When Rivers Were Trails” and how it was designed to be used in classrooms to aid in education of native american culture and history. The developers of the game took special care to make the game most accessible to the learning demographic, being elementary to high schoolers, and worked with “indigenous contributors” to make the game as historically accurate as they could. This is just one instance of a genre that was once much bigger in the video game industry, and ruled classrooms and personal computers alike. Games made for the sole purpose of education are nothing new, but are much more scarce than when I was young in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I remember seeing and playing so many different games aimed towards kids back in the day, educational or otherwise, but this market has seemed to diminish. I’ve had fond memories with these educational games in and out of classes, with games such as the “Putt-Putt” series, “Math Blasters”, “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing”, “Zoombinis”, and various licensed games, such as “Winnie the Pooh” educational games. While these games vary in their educational content and teachings, they were all meant to cater to small kids. Although these games once existed in abundance, they dwindle in numbers as the years go on. It may be that developers are tending to find them as “Not profitable” when compared to regular games, but in my opinion, all games can have educational value. For instance, playing card games like “Hearthstone” for so long has taught me to think ahead when playing games, and has improved my problem solving. “Luigi’s Mansion” taught me how to play video games in general, as it was one of the first games I beat without any help. Additionally, we discussed the role relationships and romance mechanics take in games, as well as the role of gender and sexuality in games. One example we specifically talked about in class was with the “Fable” series, which allows the player to see the sexualities of all NPC’s on their character descriptions. While this can be seen as a step forward when compared to most games, it also seems quite disingenuous that a character is labeled as their sexuality. At the same time, a game like “Mass Effect” allows you to romance anyone you want, with almost no limitations. This can also seem disingenuous, as not everyone is a pansexual romancer in real life either. It seems to be a gray area in games as of right now,  but the idea of “romance” evolves everyday. Games should follow suit in this evolution, and find a perfect middle in how to handle the relationship.