Homework 14

State

For this assignment, I decided to make two state diagrams on the aspect of the game I am currently working on. I was assigned the task of creating the Journal Page (JP) Viewer and the official game menu.

Journal Page State Diagram

     This diagram illustrates how the player will be able to view all the journal pages once collected. 

Game Menu State Diagram

     This diagram illustrates the operation of the game menu. There will be two button, Start and Quit. Each button once          clicked will perform intended operation.

Week of October 21st Task

My Task:
To figure out the best way to implement the journal pages into our game. Whether it be through the use of textures, text in Blender, or both.

Work Completed:
Our team discussed several ways that the page could possibly be viewed by the player. After much discussion and exploration about blender, I think the best way will be to add a texture to the a simple plane and set a camera to view the plane. When the player come near the pages in the game the cameras will switch and the actual text from the journal pages will appear. So far I have a sample of a "journal page" with a camera directly above the plane.

Future Tasks:
Find a way to "store" the pages so that the player can view them at the leisure. 

Homework 11: Story and Game Structure

Chapter 15

A goal with no obstacles is not worth pursuing. 

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

The goal of the game is to find out what happened to the citizens of this city. Carla, our main character, will navigate through the levels of the game in search of missing journal pages with the details on what happened to the city. She feels like it is her responsibility to find out what has happened to the city.

What are the obstacles between the character and the goal? 

Carla will need to gain access into particular parts of the buildings to retrieve the pages. She will encounter puzzles in which she will need to solve to gain this access.

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

The obstacle (puzzles) will increase in difficulty as the levels progress.

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

Carla becomes more aware of the situation when she overcomes the obstacles because she is granted pages that tell her what is going on.

How is the game world simpler than the real world? 

Our game is simpler because the main character is isolated. She is in this desolate area though looks like a modern-day city we do not fully concern ourselves with all the characteristics necessary to emulate a true real world.

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

Carla has the ability to have freedom to search through the buildings and gain access into restricted areas to find the missing pages to this lab notebook.

What is the weirdest element in the game story? 

I personally think the weirdest element in our game is the gun we have decided to incorporate. Carla is supposed to be collecting the pieces of this gun throughout the game. The story of our game does not necessarily call for weaponry but it does as another element.

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

The gun will be an option of use during the final battle between the protagonist and the antagonist at the very end of the game.

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

The players should be interested in our game because our game is story based. Every element of our game is based on the storyline.

Chapter 16

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

The player has freedom of exploration. The player should feel free most of the time until they encounter an obstacle the must overcome.

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

The player is constraints include the inability to access different areas (buildings/levels) of the game unless they solve a puzzle.

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

Our team's goal is to have the player find journal pages that will reveal the reason why this place is desolate. We want them to explore the different laboratory building in search of these pages. They will need to gain access into restricted areas to retrieve the pages. They gain access through solving the puzzles. Once the pages are found they will be able to find the antagonist and hopefully revive the city or at least stop the antagonist from creating more desolate areas. There will be two other characters found in the game that can help to partially reveal what has happened but the key information are in those journal pages.

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

Yes, the player will not have a choice but to complete the obstacles in order to progress in gameplay.

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

Yes, the design of the levels and floors will force the player to accomplish their goals.

Chapter eleven of "The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell discusses the importance of having balance when designing a game. As I read this chapter I compared the twelve types of balance with the game my team is currently designing. I found that we have included, purposely excluded, and have not addressed the types of balance. Types of balance range from fairness to simplicity and complexity.

Fairness

      The first type of balance the book discusses is fairness and whether a game is symmetrical and asymmetrical. I believe our game is asymmetrical because we are creating a game with an interesting situation. Our game is centered on a very interesting situation. People in this city have disappeared through a scientific experiment and Carla, the main character, finds out this was the doing of her colleague. She tries to find out what happens through exploration. This situation causes for an asymmetrical game that will require a lot of balancing. It is important that our game is fair and provides a challenge to all those who play.

Challenge vs. Success

      Challenges in our game include puzzles, encountering lab assistants, and the overall challenge to collect all the pages to the lab notebook. The book stresses the necessity to have good balance between challenge and success. We do not want our game to be too hard or too easy. We have planned for our game to be balanced in this regard. Our challenges will accommodate a variety of skill sets and be a mixture of easy and hard puzzles depending on the level the player is on. Also, Carla will encounter two lab assistants who also survived the experiment. One will be of help to Carla while the other will be more on the side the colleague that has cause this disaster. The level of challenges will increase as the gameplay goes on with several types of puzzles to conqueror. The player should be able to achieve success on all the challenges they will encounter.

Skill vs. Chance/ Heads vs. Hands

         A game should have a good balance of skill and chance. We want the players of our game to take risks and to be subject to some judgment. Majority of our game is directed towards chance as Carla explores through the game space for these missing pages; however, some skill is required to solve the puzzles within the levels. This goes hand in hand with the balance of physical and intellectual skill. Players should be expecting an intellectual challenge when playing our game through solving the puzzles. There will be a physical component to our game because our game does have the platform aspect. To create a good balance of physical and mental, the player's brain will have a chance to relax as Carla navigates throughout the building.

Short vs. Long

      Time has been mentioned in our group meetings but the length of game play has not been address but we recognize that there needs to be a good balance between short and long. We have considered implementing a time limit on the puzzles to make the game more interesting. Also, finding the first set of pages may be faster to find than the pages toward the end of the game.

Rewarding

      We hope that our game will overall be rewarding. There are three types of rewards our game consist of based on the text. We will use completion, gateway and resources. Clearly, Carla collecting all of the pages and finding out what happened to the city people at the end of the game is an example of a completion reward. Carla will need to solve puzzles. With the completion of these puzzles, she will be rewarded with a key card or code to gain access into a building or room. We as a team have discussed resources, such as, a gun, health bars, and a vending machine for restoration.

Freedom vs. Controlled

     

      When it comes to freedom and control during our game, Carla has the freedom to navigate through the building until she encounters an area in which she will have to gain access through puzzles. It is debatable that Carla has to much freedom to roam the game, however, that can be fixed with possibly a map or some directions on where she should look for the lab notebook pages.

Simplicity vs. Complexity

      In the beginning our story was too complex and still may be but this is an area the team will have to work toward balancing. We hope that the puzzles will have a level of complexity to it while the game as a whole might be simple.

Detail vs. Imagination

     

      In our game we have put great detail into the story, maybe even too much. After reading this section on balancing detail and imagination we may want to omit some pieces of the story and leave it up to the player's imagination. During our initial game planning we decided to incorporate detail and scale back where needed, which I believe is easier than not having enough detail and added to it later.

      We hope to continue to refine the balance of our game using the types listed in Schell's book. These types help to improve our game and make sure we have considered and covered all aspects of the design of our game. We may even be able to incorporate triangularly, meaningful choices, and punishment.

BALANCE

Chapter eleven of "The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell discusses the importance of having balance when designing a game. As I read this chapter I compared the twelve types of balance with the game my team is currently designing. I found that we have included, purposely excluded, and have not addressed the types of balance. Types of balance range from fairness to simplicity and complexity.

Fairness

      The first type of balance the book discusses is fairness and whether a game is symmetrical and asymmetrical. I believe our game is asymmetrical because we are creating a game with an interesting situation. Our game is centered on a very interesting situation. People in this city have disappeared through a scientific experiment and Carla, the main character, finds out this was the doing of her colleague. She tries to find out what happens through exploration. This situation causes for an asymmetrical game that will require a lot of balancing. It is important that our game is fair and provides a challenge to all those who play.

Challenge vs. Success

      Challenges in our game include puzzles, encountering lab assistants, and the overall challenge to collect all the pages to the lab notebook. The book stresses the necessity to have good balance between challenge and success. We do not want our game to be too hard or too easy. We have planned for our game to be balanced in this regard. Our challenges will accommodate a variety of skill sets and be a mixture of easy and hard puzzles depending on the level the player is on. Also, Carla will encounter two lab assistants who also survived the experiment. One will be of help to Carla while the other will be more on the side the colleague that has cause this disaster. The level of challenges will increase as the gameplay goes on with several types of puzzles to conqueror. The player should be able to achieve success on all the challenges they will encounter.

Skill vs. Chance/ Heads vs. Hands

         A game should have a good balance of skill and chance. We want the players of our game to take risks and to be subject to some judgment. Majority of our game is directed towards chance as Carla explores through the game space for these missing pages; however, some skill is required to solve the puzzles within the levels. This goes hand in hand with the balance of physical and intellectual skill. Players should be expecting an intellectual challenge when playing our game through solving the puzzles. There will be a physical component to our game because our game does have the platform aspect. To create a good balance of physical and mental, the player's brain will have a chance to relax as Carla navigates throughout the building.

Short vs. Long

      Time has been mentioned in our group meetings but the length of game play has not been address but we recognize that there needs to be a good balance between short and long. We have considered implementing a time limit on the puzzles to make the game more interesting. Also, finding the first set of pages may be faster to find than the pages toward the end of the game.

Rewarding

      We hope that our game will overall be rewarding. There are three types of rewards our game consist of based on the text. We will use completion, gateway and resources. Clearly, Carla collecting all of the pages and finding out what happened to the city people at the end of the game is an example of a completion reward. Carla will need to solve puzzles. With the completion of these puzzles, she will be rewarded with a key card or code to gain access into a building or room. We as a team have discussed resources, such as, a gun, health bars, and a vending machine for restoration.

Freedom vs. Controlled

      When it comes to freedom and control during our game, Carla has the freedom to navigate through the building until she encounters an area in which she will have to gain access through puzzles. It is debatable that Carla has to much freedom to roam the game, however, that can be fixed with possibly a map or some directions on where she should look for the lab notebook pages.

Simplicity vs. Complexity

      In the beginning our story was too complex and still may be but this is an area the team will have to work toward balancing. We hope that the puzzles will have a level of complexity to it while the game as a whole might be simple.

Detail vs. Imagination

      In our game we have put great detail into the story, maybe even too much. After reading this section on balancing detail and imagination we may want to omit some pieces of the story and leave it up to the player's imagination. During our initial game planning we decided to incorporate detail and scale back where needed, which I believe is easier than not having enough detail and added to it later.

      We hope to continue to refine the balance of our game using the types listed in Schell's book. These types help to improve our game and make sure we have considered and covered all aspects of the design of our game. We may even be able to incorporate triangularly, meaningful choices, and punishment.