Game description (taken from steam market): “Hack, slash, and smash your way to victory in this award winning 2D arcade adventure from The Behemoth! Featuring hand-drawn characters, Castle Crashers Steam Edition delivers hi-res visuals like nothing you’ve seen before. Four friends can play locally or online to save your princess, defend your kingdom, and crash some castles!”

Own elaboration on game mechanics: Castle Crashers was originally a console-based game but is now available on PC. My friend and I played using the keyboard (mouse can be used too, depending on own settings), moving around the 2D plane with up/down/left/right arrows, and attacking and using skills with left hand keys. Game is broken down into stages (think Candy Crush), new ones unlocking upon completion of previous ones and progress is shown on a pathed map. Each stage consists of hacking at enemies (similar gameplay) and travelling right until a boss fight, which has varied gameplay (normal battle, a race/chase, battle with tanker which deals damage by running over players and creating explosion spots instead of melee attacks). Screenshot of a normal melee-oriented boss battle shown below:

Analysis of Self

Player and game profile: Female, enjoys MMORPGs, RPGs, FPSs, arcade games, story is very important in RPGs, takes gaming maybe a bit too seriously. First game of Castle Crashers, playing with the friend to be observed later in a “co-op” local game. Plays games primarily on the PC.

1. Upon launching the game, I felt excited. The graphics (aesthetics) were to my liking –old school, cute cartoon characters, very colourful and medieval themed –and the music was also fast-beat and exciting, to make the player crave for action. The theme (lens 9: theme) was reinforced by the type of monsters, their costumes, the weapon choices (sword, axe, bow and arrow etc.), and the story (saving the princesses). Having a unification theme makes the game feel more complete, well-made and also prepares the player for the game.

2. As the game started off easy, I was having fun and was eager for more. I kept wanting to travel rightwards because that was the way to progress (lens 2: fun & lens 5: endogenous value). Cut scenes at the start of the game and before boss fights add to the excitement and eagerness. Here are some other examples of lens 2, 3, 4 that add to the fun and plays on curiosity:
   1. Monsters that look dead and part of the background would spring up to attack us!
   2. Boss would hit us normally for most of the fight then suddenly pause to drink a potion which we were curious to find out its mysterious effects.
   3. At the end of the boss fight, players had to battle it out for the only princess available… Was totally caught by surprise that I had to turn against a fellow player!
   4. Variable game play of boss fights, as mentioned in the game mechanics section, resulting in many mini-games and not just all about hack-and-slash.
   5. Random objects that may or may not be interactable (crates, ladder, animals etc.).
   6. The game is social and playing with friends is always fun!

3. I felt cooperative at first because we had to work together to kill off enemies which highly outnumbered us (lens 6: problem solving via cooperation) or kill the boss. However, I felt greedy and more and more competitive as the game progressed. This was because we realized that the gold dropped was not shared and whoever got to the gold first will gain it. The same went for opening of treasure boxes, food drops that refills health points etc. I found myself abandoning my friend who was being flanked by monsters to open treasure boxes… Because of how players battle amongst themselves at the end (story, mechanics), this game has a very unique game play that is both cooperative and competitive!

4. Negative emotions due to game mechanics: I felt angry and confused when I was unable to escape attacks or hit the boss as I was not used to the controls. When I was on the verge of dying, I felt even more flustered and played badly, spamming the keyboard keys without much thought. I felt sad when I didn’t have enough gold to upgrade my character and when I died, especially to my friend at the end, because I did not like killing off fellow players!!! I felt bored when my friend kept taking all the items from me.

5. I felt successful/satisfaction when we completed a stage, when I got to kill enemies, and when I got to items before my friend and when I obtained new skills and ability points. Being and RPG, players would want to keep upgrading so obtaining items, skills and ability points is fun and satisfying. It is also exciting and satisfying when we get stuck at some parts of the map but finally break through (lens 6: problem solving).

Analysis of friend

Player and game profile: Male, enjoys all kinds of games, places priority on immediate fun rather than story. Played Castle Crashers on solo-mode. Used to own an X-Box, plays primarily on PC now.

1. Since he was now playing solo, he started off apprehensive. With two players, it was already difficult to survive and he was not sure how a single-player game will go. At the same time, he felt excited (lens 4: curiosity: having different modes adds to the excitement of the game) and confident (since this is a repeat play).

2. He was satisfied and happy when he cleared each stage. When he did not, he felt disappointed yet in some sense accomplished and eager for more. This is because the game grants players some ability points when s/he fails to clear the stage and players can become stronger and attempt to clear the stage again (lens 5: endogenous value in playing over and over even if the player isn’t strong enough to clear the stage yet).

3. My friend was obviously more focused playing alone. Now his intention was just to clear the stage whereas previously, we were just trying out a new game, having fun and also fighting for resources.

4. He also felt panic or curious when he didn’t know what was happening. Playing solo also meant that the stage restarts upon death, so staying alive was more important than in multiplayer where we can revive each other. When death is less imminent, he would be curious and ask what he’s supposed to do now and try out new things (lens 4/6: curiosity/problem solving).

Comparison and Learning Points

The lenses I focused on are surprise, fun, curiosity, endogenous value, problem solving, the elemental tetrad and unification theme.

The similarities in our experiences are: fun, surprise, curiosity, being eager for more and satisfaction.

It is fun to kill monsters, maybe because it makes players feel powerful and in control, and also, there is endogenous value in doing so –gain money and items to improve self and to progress through the game. The ability to upgrade one’s character to progress further into the game is essential to keep players playing for longer hours. The awarding of ability points even if a player fails a stage is also important to prevent players from rage-quitting, and also makes a player want to test if s/he can defeat the stage on the next try. Another factor that keeps players is that the game is broken into short stages. Like in Candy Crush, the player keeps wanting more. Short stages are less tiring and gives the sneaky illusion that one has only been playing for a short time.

There are a lot of options, random objects and different gameplays which ups the surprise factor and player’s curiosity: a few stages unlock upon completion and lead to different paths in the game, player chooses how to pump ability points according to own play-style, map has interactable objects and boss fights are varied. The most difficult part of each stage is the boss fight and thus it is the part to “look forward to”. The game becomes more interesting when there are different ways to defeat the boss, keeping players excited to meet the next challenge and problem solve. Different boss fights also evoke different emotions and satisfaction upon victory (racing against the boss vs attacking it).

Castle Crashers is social and the ability to play with friends usually adds to the fun factor, although it also requires better technology. As mentioned, the game is both cooperative and competitive and this is quite unique. Perhaps I felt sad and bored because I was expecting a cooperative game (since it seemed as though we were a TEAM with the same goal); it was quite difficult to keep switching from being allies to enemies. In hindsight, it should have been much more fun if it was clear from the start that it was a largely competitive game. I was also expecting a lot more story since it’s an RPG but was highly disappointed in that aspect. Hence, my conclusion is that the marketing of a game is important to hit the right target group!

Another reason why my friend probably enjoyed the game more than I did is that he was familiar with console games while I was not. The game instructions were catered for console-use and although there was a disclaimer indicating so, I still feel that they should have catered for PC-use if they really wanted to bring it to the PC. (There’s almost no excuse since it has been available on PC for about 2 years…) If not, players like me would just feel very lost and confused, and our interest in the game will dwindle.

Overall, Castle Crashers has its fair share of fun and surprise, but is not exactly my cup of tea. Its plus points are that it pushes the boundaries by being/having mini games of a mash of genres (it is competitive, cooperative, race, puzzle, mindless hack and slash, a bit of skilled fighting and character placement etc.), and it does have nice graphics. It could greatly improve in terms of story and providing assistance to new players (it was super difficult gauging if I was in line with or in rage of the monsters or not, not the mention the instructions for consoles popping up all around).