Game: Pokemon

Pokemon is a series of role-playing game (RPG) developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokemon Company and Nintendo. In the world of Pokemon, players embark on an adventure to explore the world as Pokemon Trainers, befriend mysterious creatures, save the world from the schemes of villainous gangs and undergo trials to become a Pokemon Master. The main mechanics involve catching Pokemon using special devices and commanding them in battles.

Thoughts and feelings when playing the game

I first played Pokemon about 20 years ago. As a wide-eyed little adventurer, I was immediately attracted the design of the adorable creatures and the concept of discovering the world of Pokemon and I’d be brimming with excitement when i reached new locations, encountered new species and when my Pokemon got stronger and evolved. I would spend hours training my Pokemon and battling with my friends. While it was frustrating to lose sometimes, it challenged me to never give up and develop better strategies for the next battle. Pokemon is truly a video game I’ve always enjoyed playing even until now.

Lens 9: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Technology:
Pokemon is released on Nintendo consoles, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS, 3DS and Switch, with the newer installments only compatible with the newer consoles.

Mechanics:

Pokemon started off with relatively simple yet novel mechanics. In the overworld, players are free to travel anywhere as long they have the necessary requirements. They can talk to NPCs and interact with objects to unlock new locations/progress the story. Wild Pokemon can also be randomly encountered and added to the player’s team.

In battle, the player calls out a Pokemon, who can be commanded to attack, or switched out for another Pokemon in the player’s team. Each Pokemon has 6 stats – HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed, has up to 2 types, can learn up to 4 different attacks and each type has weaknesses and resistances. All these play a part in determining how much damage a Pokemon deals/receives. Players win a battle by knocking out (reducing HP to 0) all of the opponent’s Pokemon. Some Pokemon can even power up during battles (Mega evolve, Z-move, Dynamax), which is not only cool to behold, but can turn the tides of the entire battle! While the mechanics are rather straightforward (simply choose a command every turn), battles are extremely intricate and require sound predictions and decision-making.

Story:

The core series of Pokemon games typically follow the same flow – you start out as a Pokemon Trainer, travel the region, prevent the world’s destruction and eventually becoming the Champion, or the strongest trainer. While some people play Pokemon for the battles, I’d say that the story makes the games far more interesting. The stories in the games feature plots to explore the relationships between people and Pokemon and occasionally challenges our philosophies and outlook in life. This not only makes the gameplay more enjoyable, with clear goals to work towards, but also makes the games more relatable and breathes life to the Pokemon, as we see them for more than creatures humans use in battles.

Aesthetics:

Pokemon started as a game with simple 2D visuals, which is honestly not that great, but it provided the space for players to imagine a Pikachu zapping opponents over a Gameboy. Over the years with newer installments, graphics improved drastically. The music used in later games also improved drastically and had much more variations, greatly enhancing the tones and moods in the events of the games, making them way more engaging.

Lens 55: The Lens of Visible Progress

Within the story mode of all the core series Pokemon games, there’s a clear way to track your progress and a Trainer – via the official Pokemon League Gym Badges/Island Pilgrimage Stamps from defeating powerful Gym Leaders or Island Kings/Queens in battle. These in-game tokens are a testament of a trainer’s abilities to overcome difficult battles. Trainers then work their way up to beat the Four Heavenly Kings and Champion to become the strongest Trainer in the region. In the post-game, there are even more difficult opponents in facilities like the Battle Frontier and Pokemon World Tournament and triumphing over them upgrades the Trainer Card, further attesting to a Trainer’s skills.

Lens 83: The Lens of Fantasy

Part of the great gameplay experience of the Pokemon games could be attributed to the co-existence with its anime. The anime counterpart of Pokemon focuses much more on storytelling, the presentation of each unique Pokemon and the battles. Different Pokemon have different biology and characteristics that they use to their advantage, some Pokemon are cunning, some clumsy and absent-minded, each have different behaviors and preferences etc. All these, coupled with the human characters and the interactions and relationships between them show us how fun it could be in the world of Pokemon. As players play the game, they can then project the vivid adventures and visuals of the anime onto the game, making the game come to life!

Lens 8: Problem Solving

One of the most exciting things in Pokemon is the battles! By connecting to the Internet, Trainers can battle each other all over the world. There are virtually endless combinations of teams one can use in a battle, and arguably, the challenge starts even before the battle. A trainer has to consider the strengths, weaknesses and synergy of a team they put together. During battles, trainers have to keep tabs on the possible threats in the opposing team and think of strategies to outmaneuver them. Using different Pokemon teams and facing different obstacles across various battles, then coming up with strategies to overcome them is what make Pokemon battles so fun!

Lens 5: Fun

As mentioned in Lens 8, Pokemon battles allow trainers to unleash their creativity by putting together a strategy. That’s right, even the most ridiculous of strategies can work. “What if I do this with this Pokemon?” is a question that trainers often think of and before long, we rush to try our newly conceived strategies out. While the mechanics are simple, new strategies and optimization are always being conceived, allowing for fun limited only by our imagination.

Conclusion

Aim to be a Pokemon Master! Pokemon is a game that is straightforward to play, yet extremely intricate from the sheer amount of options and strategies available. The lighthearted concepts of adventures, dreams and friendships with Pokemon, combined with character designs, storylines and musics are also highly appealing, making it suitable for all players, young or old, competitive or casual.

Subway Surfers is a single-player game where the player seeks to collect the most coins in a highly dynamic and fast-paced environment where there are trains and obstacles to avoid. The gameplay gets faster as the player progresses through the obstacles and time passes, making it a fun and challenging experience.

This new version of the game is in a space station backdrop, as observed in the design of the gameplay background and props. This analysis will examine how the different game design lenses apply to Subway Surfers.

Lens 1: Essential Experience

The essential experience of this game is to collect as many coins. However, an interesting secondary objective to enable this essential experience is the need to escape oncoming trains, which becomes more challenging as the game goes on. In addition, there are also barriers which act as obstacles which the player can slide under, and the option to climb onto the top of the trains, where there are often coins available for the players.

Lens 6: Problem Solving

Interestingly unlike many other games, the idea of complex problem solving is not applied in this game. Problem solving is often used in games to give players a sense of accomplishment. In contrast, this game does provide players with a sense of accomplishment primarily through the timing of their actions to avoid the obstacles, which enable them to go a further distance and have more opportunities to collect more coins.

This singular focus throughout the game makes the game extremely addictive in the short term, with players able to grasp the basic concepts and mechanics of the game very quickly, motivating them to persevere to achieve a better score, which is then highlighted in the game user interface as displayed in the image below when the player achieves a high score. Conversely, the game is likely to not be able retain a big number of users as there is little variation to the game, resulting in less incentive for the player to explore further and continue playing in the long term.

Lens 7: Elemental Tetrad

In terms of aesthetics, the game’s aesthetics are well-designed and appealing, with the combination of the immersive design of the space station coupled with the sound effects. In particular, the jingle sounds when the player collects coins acts as a positive feedback mechanism and encourages the player to continue to strive to collect more coins. This inherently also acts as an audio cue for users to understand the objective when learning the game.

The mechanics of the game applies basic physics, especially with regards to the jumping and landing of the character when he seeks to avoid the oncoming trains. In terms of the story, there is hardly any plot development, and the player has a simple aim of collecting the coins, as mentioned in the analysis of Lens 6: Problem Solving.

Technologically, being aimed in the smartphone market, this game creates an addictive gaming experience and is played in the portrait orientation, which is highly suitable for the display of the oncoming trains.

Lens 48: Simplicity

The simplicity of the controls makes the game highly accessible to all ages. This game encompassess three simple actions

1. Swiping up: to jump
2. Swiping down: to duck under obstacles
3. Swiping left/right: to change between the three lanes of the track

The intuitive game design makes it a simple gaming experience and one that is easy to learn. This explains why it was especially popular with youths in the initial release of the game due to its simplicity and yet addictive objective of getting a better score than their peers and friends.

Conclusion

As a whole, Subway Surfers is a game that is simple yet extremely addictive. Interestingly, the simplicity of the game is what makes the players want to keep playing to achieve a higher score. Although it does not have intricate problem solving challenges, the simple mechanics of the game make it addictive in the short-term and create an accessible gaming experience for all ages and individuals.

Description

Overwatch is a First Person Shooter (FPS) game, where players get to choose a hero they want to play from a particular selection. Each hero generally has unique abilities that differentiate themselves from one another. Working in a team of 6 players against another team of 6, the primary goal of players is to capture points or escort what is known as a “payload” to a destination, whilst trying to kill the enemy team to aid this process.

Below is a link showing some plays from various Overwatch professionals collected into a montage. They show what the UI of the game is like and the general gameplay as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB_Dd9WZwNk

Lens 9 – Elemental Tetrad – Aesthetics

The game primarily has 2 major items which aesthetics play a rather major role in. The first being the maps in which the players play in. These maps are generally designed based off real life buildings, as seen in the picture below.

The art is designed such that players will feel more of a mental model connection with the buildings you see in real life. For example, the buildings can act as shelter for a player to take cover from enemy fire, and the open areas outside of a map generally signal to a player that falling off there would lead to certain death. 

The other major item is the characters (or heroes as they are termed in Overwatch) themselves. Fine details are made to the skins of each character, such as having shurikens as weapons, which is used by a character that has the background of being a ninja. In addition, the game has many skins that the player can earn and use, so that they can see the weapon that they use in the most aesthetically pleasing way. 

Lens 9 – Elemental Tetrad – Mechanics

Each hero is generalised as having a primary way of attacking, using the weapon that they are holding. Some heroes have an alternative way of firing their weapon (also known as secondary fire). The most unique part is the abilities that each hero has, which are generally kept within 2 to 3, along with an Ultimate ability that the player charges up to use.

The general mechanics of the game is quite simple to understand. Attacking the enemies and dealing damage provides charge for a player to use their Ultimate ability, and each of their regular abilities have a cooldown. Killing the enemies are generally the best way to progress to their objective, which is to capture the enemy’s points, or push the payload to the enemy’s territory. This enables a wide range of players to enjoy the game itself. 

Each of the heroes, given the wide variety available, then has different mechanics and skill ceilings based off the heroes abilities and general recommended playstyle. This allows players to find the hero that they are most comfortable with, or challenge themselves to play a hero that is more mechanically demanding, making the game more interesting.

Lens 9 – Elemental Tetrad – Story

Overwatch lore and backstories for each of the heroes is something that has been present since the early conception of Overwatch beta. However, even though the game has made Player vs Event modes before that touch more and expand upon the Overwatch storyline, it is safe to say that most players are playing an FPS game more so for the action rather than the history. It is worth noting however that this is not necessarily a bad thing, as the initial introduction to the lore can help serve as a starting point to attract players to try out the game, and hopefully convince them to stay through the mechanics and aesthetics portion.

Lens 9 – Elemental Tetrad – Technology

One of the points about technology that makes Overwatch stand out is the overall capability of being able have such a fast paced game without giving up a lot of performance. Based on the Youtube link in the front part of this analysis, you can tell that Overwatch has a lot of different unique models, coupled with complex effects that come from the player weapons. Some heroes even have the ability to teleport or move at rapid speeds using their abilities. Yet, somehow the game manages to give the players a seamless experience when playing, which is something I felt was very important for a game like Overwatch to succeed. Sure, you can compare it to other FPS’s like Quake or CounterStrike, but the quality of art and design in Overwatch is relatively much more vivid compared to those games.

Lens 34 – Skill

Overwatch mainly requires players to have the skill to aim and shoot. In terms of practicing, the players are able to train in the practice range against bots and such, but they are also able to play general games against other public players, using a hidden MMR (Match making rating), so that players of generally equal skill values are matched up against one another for an overall better game experience. 

The player is also required to have the skill to discern what they should play based on a multitude of factors, such as the enemy’s team composition, the map itself, what their teammate’s are playing, and so on. This skill is relatively hard to acquire and requires much practice and playing in order to develop a sense for the game, but having such a skill helps to set apart the players who are exceptionally good, which can give them a sense of overall achievement in the game through competitive game modes.

Lens 37 – Fairness

As touched upon briefly in the Lens of Skill, the general public game mode that most players engage in is called “Quick Play” and it involves the system using a hidden “Match making rating” to put the player alongside 11 other players that have a similar rating, in hopes to provide a better and fairer game. The more the player plays, the more statistics that Overwatch has to come up with a rating that is as close to the player’s skill level as possible. In the competitive mode, this rating similiarly applies, but it is a publicly shown value instead.

Lens 44 – Cooperation

In each of Overwatch’s game modes, players who are in the same team as one another can enter a voice channel and communicate, so that they can time their attacks and usage of abilities together with their teammates. In addition, communication in Overwatch is considered one of the key aspects needed in order to raise one’s chances of winning the game, as timing your attacks with your team helps to bring down the enemy quicker and faster, instead of operating as a solo minded player.

However, sometimes the team can be a group of total strangers, where 6 solo players are grouped together. In that event, Overwatch does not contain any form of avenue for these players to try and get to know each other first, which is understandable since this can waste the time of the players when they want to play as many games as possible. Another seemingly bad point is that Overwatch has no particular roles when it comes to communication, hence there can be situations where the communication channels are overloaded with information, or filled with silence. Either way, both scenarios are generally considered bad and hinder teamwork.

Lens 87 – Character Traits

This lens could possibly be the most defining aspect of Overwatch, since the traits of each hero are very unique, and are usually very strongly tied to the hero.

For example, there is a hero called Genji who is supposedly a ninja. His weapons consist of shurikens which is generally what ninjas are perceived to use. His abilities include deflecting the enemy’s attacks, showcasing the swiftness and agility of a ninja, as well the ability to dash across a given distance. These abilities and actions that the hero has are usually created based off the hero’s traits, which is something I found to be very unique and helps given our mental models of certain heroes. 

Conclusion

Overall, Overwatch has succeeded in being a very popular game, with many Overwatch professionals having a successful career in the Overwatch League.

This can be attributed to the way the game easily allows players of various skill levels to enter and play, without much regard for their previous gaming experiences, and yet ensuring relatively balanced games each time. In addition, the way each character is so uniquely developed helps to ensure that each game is relatively fresh and new. Finally, the overall aesthetics in this fast paced game rounds up the quality of the gaming experience.

Although the game quality can be quite hectic and bad when communications die down during a competitive match, those are still relatively few are far between, given the usual player’s drive to win. Hence, I feel that Overwatch is a game that I not only enjoy, but which many others do too.

Name of the game

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 (Playing the OpenRCT2 open-source adaptation of the game)

Short description of the game

Released in 2002, Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 (or RCT2 for short) is a construction and management simulation game developed by Chris Sawyer. The game is second in the Roller Coaster Tycoon series and it was all designed and programmed by Sawyer in assembly language.

RCT2’s main mode of gameplay consists of different scenarios where players have to manage a theme park and meet certain objectives by a deadline. It also has a sandbox mode where players could create their own scenarios and rides without constraints as well as having scenarios which modelled after the real-life Six Flags Theme Parks. With its unique gameplay, it is considered one of the pioneers of the simulation games genre.

The open-source adaptation of the game, OpenRCT2, was created by a group of volunteers to make the game compatible with more modern versions of current operating systems as well as adding more control and options to the game.

Links

OpenRCT2 download: https://openrct2.org/ (Requires the original RCT2 game which can be downloaded on Steam)

RCT2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/285330/RollerCoaster_Tycoon_2_Triple_Thrill_Pack/

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATvnpazWFPU

Preamble + How I felt upon playing the game

Before I dive into the analysis of the game, this game was my childhood and I would play it ever so often during my primary and secondary school years.

Upon playing the game, I experience a sense of satisfaction whenever I managed to build a roller coaster that has high excitement ratings. I also realized that at any moment in the game, I am always worried about my park rating as well as my finances and my eyes tend to be focused on this HUD a lot.

Nonetheless, this game really gave me a sense of nostalgia through the pixelated graphics. The clear animations as well as the sounds also made me feel like I am overseeing the management of an actual theme park.

Relate to elemental tetrad and 4-5 lenses

Lens 9: The Lens of The Elemental Tetrad

Technology: As RCT2 is a rather old PC game (2002), the original game was only supported on older versions of Windows such as Windows XP or Windows Vista. However, after the open source adaption was released, the game is now playable on Windows 10, macOS and Linux. Hence, I would say that the technology for this game has been well-managed now thanks to the adaptation.

Mechanics: The main gameplay for RCT2 is unique in the sense that there were not many games of the same genre back then. The gameplay involves a collection of scenarios in which each scenario gives the player the control of a theme park with certain constraints. For each scenario. the player is required to meet certain objectives whilst keeping in mind the deadline in order to complete it.

This challenge of managing a theme park requires a lot of strategic planning from players as there are many things that the player must take care of. This includes things like finances and loans, staffing, park rating and guest happiness which keeps the player engaged at any given moment in the game. The scenarios also progressively get harder as more challenging scenarios get unlocked with each scenario cleared.

The game also allowed players to express their creativity and encouraging the spirit of design as players are able to place scenery around the park to beautify it and think of how to construct roads/paths and rides that can navigate through the park environment.

Personally, I feel that the mechanics of the game is the reason why this game is considered a classic as it really engages the player’s creativity, imagination, and organisation skills.

Aesthetics: As an early 2000s game, the aesthetics can seem rather pixelated when viewed with a modern lens. However, at that time, the aesthetics of the game was considered amazing with how life-like the parks can look with clear animations of guests walking around the park and roller coasters darting about on the tracks. The audio of guests screaming as they enter a drop on the roller coaster is also a nice touch as it added to how a theme park should sound like. Although the objects in the game (such as the scenery) were of low quality, they were definitely detailed enough for players to distinguish between different objects in the scene and there was enough variation for players to create their own unique theme park.

Story: As this game is a simulation game, a story is not needed for it to be fun and addictive for players. Even though a well-constructed story could be effective in giving player some context as to why they are managing a certain park, it may be superfluous as the main appeal of the game are the mechanics which traps the player to carry on managing the park rather than a deep lore.

Lens 38: The Lens of Challenge

In each scenario, there are certain objectives that the player must meet to clear them. These objectives can include achieving a minimum park rating by a certain date or getting a certain number of guests in the park.

As the scenarios often have a tight deadline, the player must plan and imagine in advance how they would allocate their resources and go about expanding the park. For instance, the player might start with cheap and simple roller coasters in the beginning to attract more guests in the initial stages of the game or invest bulk of the money into advertisements in order to entice more guests into the park to meet a certain goal. The scenarios also progressively get harder with more constraints as the player advances through the scenarios which keeps the game interesting.

Lens 51: The Lens of Imagination

As the game was fairly limited in terms of technology at that time with regard to graphics, imagination plays a huge role in the game to immerse the player into managing a real-life amusement park. The game uses a lot of sound that is commonly heard in an amusement park (such as guests chatting, screaming upon a drop on a roller coaster, the splashing noise of water rides) which fills the gap in trying to capture the experience of being in a theme park. The objects in the game are also nicely and smartly designed (such as the roller coasters) to enhance the realism of the game. For example, the guest walking animations, although simple, has a lot of variation in the speed as well as going back and forth different sprites which can tell you if a guest in the park is happy/excited or sad/tired. This forces the player to imagine how a guest would appear with various moods by fitting the player’s mental model.

Lens 52: The Lens of Economy

Bulk of the game is heavily centered around managing finances as the player would want to keep the theme park running at a profit to expand the park. As such, there are a lot of choices that needs to be made by the player so that he/she is able to keep the theme park afloat.

For instance, a player might decide to only build smaller thrill rides in the beginning before spending massively on a huge and attractive roller coaster. On the other hand, another player would think that building smaller roller coasters would be more beneficial in ensuring a more constant supply of guests arriving to the park. Both approaches are indeed valid ways of managing the expansion of the park with the financial constraints and they each have their own trade-offs and benefits.

However, even though this game might seem fun for a problem-solver and strategy-game lover like myself, there are players who would find this constant planning of resources to be tiring and may find the game stressful or not as fun.

Lens 21: The Lens of Flow

Although the different scenarios have clear objectives set, the game (in my opinion) does not do a very good job in trying to keep the players fixated on them. In my experience of playing the game, I am often carried away by my imagination in building the best theme park that I can such that I forget what the original objectives of the scenarios were. This happens frequently to me as the game rarely reminds you of the objectives that you need to complete. Hence, the game does not really have a flow as there is no constant reminder of objectives which does not really hold a player’s focus.

However, it is also possible that this seems more like a feature rather than an oversight on how the game is supposed to be. Bulk of the reason why this game is considered a classic is because most players consider the fun in the game to be the actual building and designing of the park rather than the accomplishment of meeting certain objectives.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the various lenses play a role in helping to shape the experience of the player in RCT2. Even though the game may not necessarily have a defined story or objectives, it was incredibly addictive as it relies on imagination and creativity to keep players engaged (since no playthrough of any scenario would ever look the same due to the endless possibilities of design and management approaches).

Note: Images are taken from the actual game played (OpenRCT2 Adaptation)

By: Sim Jun Yuen, Darren (A0136233N) (CS3247: Game Development AY20/21 S2)

Game: Fall Guys

Fall Guys is a platformer battle royale game released by Mediatonic. The main concept of the game is simple: Compete against 60 people and be the last man standing in a series of levels designed to eliminate players. The levels are split into 4 different categories with different goals.

Race: Race through levels with to qualify for the next round.

Survival: Stay alive for as long as possible

Team: Do not lose to other teams

Final: Get the crown

Fall Guys Official Website

Gameplay Demo:

Lens 9: The Elemental Tetrad

Most successful games tend to have a healthy combination of the 4 types (aesthetics, technology, mechanics and story) in the tetrad. Despite Fall Guys lacking in the story department of the tetrad, the game has still managed to be successful by using elements from the other 3 types to make the game fun.

Story:

Like most battle royale games, Fall Guys doesn’t really have a strong story to it. The story of the game is simply to be the last man standing. Despite the lack of story, many games have managed to be successful without having a strong story component. In recent years, battle royale games like PUBG and Fortnite have achieved much success without the need for a story driven game.

However, Fall Guys tries to compensate for this by having new “seasons.” Each season lasts about 3 months which boast a new rotation of maps and skins, making the experience of the game different every once in a while.

Aesthetics:

Design in the game is beautiful and well thought out. In general, Fall Guys tends to use bright, candy-like neon colours for the levels and, making the game feel very lighthearted. Levels are designed such that they have varying obstacles, making every level unique. The main character of the game is a cute jellybean-like creature with long arms and short legs. The visuals are accompanied with a very cheerful soundtrack.

UI elements in the game are designed to reduce unnecessary interaction so that the user can jump straight into the game.

Mechanics:

I believe a large part of Fall Guys success has to do with its relatively simplistic gameplay, making it easy to pick up. To play the game, you only need to use 3 buttons to jump, grab and dive. Additionally, levels are designed following Mediatonic’s “three word rule” where the goal of each level can be explained using 3 words only (e.g. Grab The Tail, Reach The Finish). The simplicity of the game allows beginners to hop in and play at any time.

Technology:

As mentioned before, the reason Fall Guys is so popular is largely due to its simplistic gameplay, allowing people to hop in and play at any time. The game is not resource intensive and does not require good GPUs/CPUs to run it smoothly. It is released on PCs and the popular console PS4, making it very accessible to casual gamers.

Lens 40: Triangularity

Some levels in Fall Guys are designed with multiple pathways (mostly maps in the race category) with different difficulty, allowing players to decide if they want to take a longer route and play it safe, or take a shortcut with higher risk to reach the goal faster. This makes the game more unpredictable and exciting.

Lens 43: Competition

Apart from having to deal with the chaos brought about by obstacles in the level and having to avoid being trampled over by other players, Fall Guys has a unique mechanic which allows players to grab others to prevent them from moving. This mechanic introduces a new way of playing the game, where you can intentionally hinder one’s progress by pulling them away from the goal making the game that much more competitive and fun.

Also, the game allows users to purchase cosmetics for their characters using crowns won from games as currency, giving players a greater incentive to win.

Lens 48: Simplicity/Complexity

The controls of the game are very simple, and only requires 3 buttons to do everything required. Additionally, levels are designed such that the goals are obvious. This simplicity engages beginners and casual gamers, allowing them to pick up the game quickly. That being said, it isn’t easy to win the crown every game. Obstacles introduced in levels are difficult to overcome and require skill and planning. Players will need to have appropriate strategies to navigate these obstacles and a bit of skill to dodge flying fruits.

Fall Guys strikes the right balance between simplicity and complexity. Simplicity of the games attracts players, and the complexity makes them stay, improve and want to play more.

Lens 95: Spectation

Part of the game’s success is due to the game’s broadcastability which has attracted a large audience and player base. While playing the game for yourself could be stressful or infuriating if you are determined to reach the goal, watching the game as a third party changes the whole experience. Being able to watch someone play allows the viewer to enjoy the humor of one falling into the slime or getting flung backwards by a hammer, without having to deal with the emotional pain. As the game is designed like a game show, the experience of watching it could be likened to watching funny game shows like Total Wipeout or Ninja Warrior, where viewers can appreciate the experience without having to actively participate.

The game that I have chosen for this assignment would be “Overcooked! 2”. “Overcooked! 2” is a co-op game where 2-4 players prepare and cook different recipes in various themed restaurants while facing a multitude of various obstacles. Links to the game’s website and a short gameplay demo are described below:

• Overcooked! 2’s website: http://www.ghosttowngames.com/overcooked-2/
• Link to a short Gameplay Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u5RVegpltY&ab_channel=EVids

In this write-up, I will be evaluating my gameplay experience accordingly to the various lenses listed in “The Art of Game Design – A Book of Lenses”.

Lens 9: The Lens of The Elemental Tetrad

The story revolves around the Onion King, Kevin and the Unbread (bread zombies) that have risen from the dead. The role of the player is to hone their skills in cooking, so they can satisfy the cravings of the Unbread in the final “boss level”. Once players complete the final level, the game ends with a dialogue with the Onion King that summarises how the Unbread are not dangerous anymore and peace has been restored in the kingdom. However, I felt the story was not really integrated well with the game. It just seemed to serve as a means to introduce the game to new players and to wrap up the game after the final boss level, but the storyline was not mentioned anywhere else between the other levels. There were times I felt bored during the dialogue and I tend to skip past it as well.

In terms of technology, “Overcooked! 2” is supported on various platforms (Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation and Windows platforms). For this assignment, I’ll be focusing on the Nintendo Switch. Players control their avatars with the Joycon controllers to carry out the various actions of chopping and holding ingredients, to dashing in the kitchen.

Additionally, the aesthetics of the game is such that the whole game revolves around 6 differently-themed kitchens. Some examples include wooden rafts and an enchanted castle. Relevant animations are also played based on how the player interacts with the world. Each world comes with their own themed background music, as well as their own unique set of obstacles that behave differently (i.e. portals only appear in the enchanted castle levels).

This brings us to the mechanics of the game. It includes preparing ingredients (e.g. chopping, mixing) and cooking the food (e.g. boiling it in a pot/frying it in a pan/baking in an oven) before serving them. Players can also throw “raw” ingredients over obstacles to their teammates or dash to facilitate faster service in the kitchen. Obstacles may also behave differently based on the varying difficulty of the level (i.e. stationary portals progressively develop into moving portals in later levels). This results in a gradual increase in difficulty as players progress in the game.

Lens 8: The Lens of Problem Solving

There are many different ways of overcoming the obstacles in a level or obtaining a higher score. Players would need to devise strategies and decide which is the “best one” to overcome them accordingly and obtain the highest score in that level. However, there are also hidden problems to solve that arise based on the number of the players. For instance, the difficulty of all levels remains the same regardless of the number of players. As the score is linearly related to the number of orders served, it will be more difficult for 2 players to obtain 4 stars compared to 4 players. I usually encounter this problem as I only have 2 Joycon controllers (i.e. only 2 players can play at any time). However, my sister and I would try to formulate various strategies in order to solve and overcome this problem. Though it can be challenging at times, it does make the game fun and engaging as you sometimes find innovative ways to make use of certain mechanics to process orders faster.

Lens 44: The Lens of Cooperation

Secondly, players would have to communicate and cooperate effectively in the game in order to excel as a team. Since playing on the Nintendo Switch requires players to all be together in one physical location, players have enough opportunity to communicate. In order to beat the clock, the most effective way would be for players to delegate tasks among one another (i.e. one player focuses on chopping, one player focuses on cooking and serving). Players need to communicate well in order to know what strategy they want to adopt, and what each member is doing to serve orders efficiently.

Despite it being a co-op game, it is ironic that there are also times when my sister and I get frustrated at each other while playing the game (especially so when one of us gets “lost” while rushing out the orders/keep “dying” from the obstacles in place). This is probably attributed to the fact that the game gets more stressful as we try to beat our previous highscores. However, managing to overcome the levels together always feel satisfying, especially if the level was a difficult one.  

Lens 55: The Lens of Visible Progress:

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Thirdly, the player’s progress is clearly displayed in each level, as well as their overall progression in the game as a whole.

Within each round, players earn points that corresponds to the number of orders they served. Points serve as a way for players to see whether they have improved or not when trying to solve a level. A breakdown of their score will be given in the end card, as seen on the image on the left. Highscores for each level are also tracked accordingly.

As a whole, the player’s progress in the game can be benchmarked by the number of stars they have earned in total. Players earn stars according to the number they have earned in each level, with a maximum of 4 stars to be earned on each level. As players progress further into the game, they will realise that a certain number of stars also have to be collected before they can unlock and play some of the higher levels which are more difficult. This progress is visible on the map, as exemplified in the image on the right. However, there is also some hidden progress in the form of hidden “Kevin levels”, which are bonus levels that are unlocked and revealed to players once they have acquired enough stars. This is highly related to the next lens, The Lens of Flow.

Lens 21: The Lens of Flow

Lastly, the game provides clear goals to the player, which is to progress to higher levels until reach “final boss” level. The game provides a steady stream of challenges to the player – difficulty of the game adjusts slowly according to how players progress through the levels. Doing so gives players time to get used to the game’s mechanics when they first start playing, as well as improve their skills the more they play. By gradually increasing the difficulty to accommodate to the players’ improving skills, this allows them to keep engaged and stay in the state of flow. This is something that I experienced when playing “Overcooked! 2” and I find that it helps keep me engaged and not get tired of the game too quickly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, various lenses contribute to the player’s experience when playing “Overcooked! 2”. In a way, the game tries to simulate the real world as well – communication and cooperation between players (chefs) are integral in the game, which is akin to working a professional kitchen. Overall, this assignment has helped me to glean more insight into how the lenses can be applied when considering how to design a game that value-adds to the player’s experience, which is a skill that could be applicable and relevant to our group project.

References:
Images obtained from Google Images

Description

Lens 9: The Elemental Tetrad

Lens 8: Problem solving

The game poses many problems for players at different skill level, ensuring civ6 always pose new problems for the players to solve to be bring their civilization to great new heights.

• Placing buildings in civ6 have different bonuses.
  • As a beginner who is starting to learn the game, the most basic bonuses are overlaid and shown to the player when placing buildings. Though it’s not the most, the different values at differ tiles would probe the players to ponder about it while learning the game.
  • As the player became more advance, they would realized there are hidden bonuses from their leaders/ buildings, if well planned would allow the player to squeeze out all the bonuses it has to offer.

Lens 79: Freedom

As a leader of a great civilization, players can do anything they like. Though there are only 5 ways to victory, the path to victory is never fixed. The player can focus on anything they like or are good at, and use those aspects to drive their civilization’s development.

For example: Player going for science victory in civ6 can still go around conquering other civilization if they are very advance in science. There is no fixed path to victory.

Lens 6: Curiosity

Civ6 does is very limitless, there’s lots of hidden details and bonuses for the players to uncover. The game strongly adopts a show, don’t tell technique to arouse players interest in any area. It always shows just enough information to the player. If the player first discovered a new item, the player can visually see it, but it will not prompt the player to act on it, this would allow the player to be continue their tasks at hand and come back again later if they are curious. But if it didn’t pique their interests, when other civilizations are using it, it would prompt the player to investigate it further. Having a encyclopedia called civilopedia also helps aid users to easily investigate their interests.

Lens 55: Visible Progress

As a turn based game, there are often downtime while waiting for other players to take their turns. Hence, players can view their progress towards each of the 5 victory in civ6. There is a world ranking board which allows the player to keep up to date with the latest progress of everyone in the game. This information allows players to prioritize their game play depending on other players progress. Players would be able to adopt different tactics to be the best civilization.

Lens 59: Control

The game provides a guide perimeter for players to know how to control and move their character. Meaningful UI allows the players to act in control and to check their understanding of the characters movement. It is easy to master since clicking on troops only moves or attacks a object and nothing more. By being easier to control and more predictable in the characters’ movement, it allows players to feel powerful. Also, the controls does not feel outdated like a normal 5 year old game would.

Introduction

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a self-described pop album video game developed by Simogo and was released on the PS4, Nintendo Switch, Steam and Apple Arcade in 2019 and Xbox in early 2020. Its description further states that it is “dreamy arcade game about riding motorcycles, skateboarding, dance battling, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 mph”. An unorthodox description for a unique game that changes up the typical rhythm genre.

Experience

Sayonara Wild Hearts invokes a magical experience from when you launch the game and manages to sustain it until the end.

Lens 9: The Elemental Tetrad

The Elemental Tetrad considers four basic elements of games, Story, Mechanics, Technology and Aesthetics, and Sayonara Wild Hearts does a great job in harmonising these elements.

Story

The story is linear and relatively simple on its surface, but filled with depth. The setting of the story is established by the narrator and the main character sets off on her journey to find her purpose after suffering from loss. On the surface, the main character navigates through a course where she eventually meets her enemies and defeats them one by one. However, when we look deeper into its meaning, the levels represent an emotional struggle within the main character, which are inferred through the use of Tarot Cards. It is a storytelling experience that enthrals the player but leaves some intrigue for the player to search further.

Mechanics

The goal of each level is to navigate a course and collect hearts to increase the score, which will be graded on upon completion. It is simple to clear each level but challenging for the player if they want to obtain the highest rank. Each level flows smoothly and manoeuvring the character feels good and precise that there was never a moment of frustration in controls.

Technology

SWH is built upon the Unity 3D engine, which worked well for the developers to achieve their vision. The game is played a standard Xbox/Playstation/Switch controller or with the Touch Screen, depending on the platform.

Aesthetics

SWH has eye-popping aesthetics that immediately draws you into its world. The visuals complement the story and gameplay well, dropping the player into many beautiful locations. These locations represent a certain emotion within story and are pleasing to travel through. Being a pop album rhythm game, music plays an important role too. Each level has a specific song tied to it and their meaning are also representative of the story. Furthermore, the soundtrack is a blast to listen to outside of the game.

Lens 4: Surprise

SWH’s unique gameplay was a pleasant surprise. Never before had I play this type of game and it immediately captures you with its bright visuals and lively soundtrack like a fancy arcade machine. The trailer easily captured my attention and it was an interesting experience playing this game.

Lens 5: Fun

Due to the fast-paced nature of the game, the game was fun to play, albeit short. It puts you onto a speeding motorcycle and you ride your way through a mystical forest, narrow tunnels, a scenic highway and many more. You battle enemies to the beat of the song. Energetic from the start to finish, the game keeps you engaged and never loses its steam.

Lens 48: Simplicity/Complexity

SWH is simple to understand: move your player left or right and collect as many as hearts as possible. Although on paper, it might be present itself as too simple but it is anything but that. There is complexity to the design of the levels that is challenging for players to obtain the highest rank, which requires an almost perfect run. This means that the game is easily accessible for anyone and provides a challenge for those who are looking for it.

Lens 93: The Nameless Quality

The reviews of SWH, including my own, can attest that the game feels special and wonderous. The summation of every aspect of their design shows that the world and its design is very much alive and screaming at the top of its lungs. It is boisterous, flamboyant and ensures that you are in for a good time.

Conclusion

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a masterclass example for indie games. It is beautiful, well-designed and everything a video game should be: immersive and enjoyable.

Description

The Kingdom of Loathing is a turn-based, comedy/satirical Role Playing Game (RPG), played on the browser. The game’s slogan is “An Adventurer is you!” and this reflects the free-spirited nature of the game – you are an adventurer, and what you want to do on your adventures is up to you!

Website: The Kingdom of Loathing
First quick look: Kingdom of Loathing Gameplay – First Look HD – YouTube

Every real-world day, the player is given 40 adventures, and the player spends their adventures by clicking on the many locations within the many areas on the island. Adventuring at places could result in battles, or certain events happening which could let the player find items, gain status effects or complete quests. Additionally, the player can also craft items, smith weapons and equipment, and cook food and mix booze, and consuming drinks and eating gives the player additional adventures for that day.

While the player is free to do whatever they want with their adventures, there is a more or less linear storyline the player can follow, which involves completing quests given out by the Council of Loathing, starting from simple quests like searching for mosquito larva at the spooky forest to creating and ending a war between hippies and frat boys, culminating in the final quest – to defeat the Naughty Sorceress.

After defeating the Naughty Sorceress, the player can then continue to adventure, growing even stronger, or can choose to ascend to Valhalla, where one receives karma for various good deeds they did in their life. The player then can choose to be reborn from level 1, in a new class, and take up various ascension challenges in their next life, such as being unable to access their inventory from previous lives. The player can use the karma they earn to bring skills they learnt into their next lives. Ascension and reincarnation thus effectively offers the player infinite replayability, and the developers occasionally release new ascension path challenges that keep the game fresh.

The Elemental Tetrad

Technology: The game was released in 2003 and its interface has not changed significantly since then. Images are mostly static and each click refreshes the page. The use of the universal platform of the internet allowed the game to be played on any device with a browser, even feature phones. However, there is no doubt that appealing to the lowest denominator may cause the game to lose appeal with those who desire more interactivity and better graphics.

Mechanics: The game mechanics are extremely simple and uniform. Every adventure involves clicking through choices, even battles (choosing whether to attack, use skills or items, or run away). Crafting involves attempting to combine any set of items in your inventory together. However, this lends the game a lot of flexibility as the possibilities from these open interactions are endless. A large part of the fun is figuring out what interactions are possible using logic, figuring out textual clues, or accumulated knowledge over multiple ascensions.

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Story: The storytelling in the game is a major element that makes it interesting. While I mentioned that there is a linear storyline, how you go about finishing your quests is left for you to discover. The council sends the player on extremely random quests with hilarious motivations, which gradually unlocks more and more of the map. However, they leave it to the player to go and adventure, figure out what needs to be done and choose how they want to solve it. For example, in the Frat boy/Hippie war, do you side with the Hippies and defeat the Frat boys? Or the other way around? Or do you calculate exactly how many enemies to defeat on both sides so that they wipe each other out? There are also side stories in addition to the main quests. Ultimately it is up to the player to write their own adventure.

Aesthetic: The game has an extremely unique aesthetic which appeals to some and not others. The images are all either static or simple gifs, and are mostly hand-drawn stick-figures, which some may find funny, while others lazy. Some may enjoy the many subtle puns and references, while others may find it too noisy.

The Lens of Fun (#5)

This is the key lens underlying the experiences of this game – it is meant to be fun, and not taken seriously. There are few serious consequences in the game – even if you lose all your HP, you merely receive a “Beaten up” status and spend some adventures resting at your campsite. Casual players can simply wait to the next day to receive more adventures and continue their journey, and slowly enjoy the many jokes and references peppered throughout the kingdom. Examples:

• The currency of the game is Meat, not gold, since the creator felt that it was nonsensical for monsters to drop money when defeated
• The classes. Your character can pick from 6 classes which follow the wizard/warrior/thief archetypes. Except the classes include Pastamancers, who wield pasta magic and whose Nemesis is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and Seal Clubbers, warriors from the frigid north, which is poking fun at typical Northern “Savage” warrior classes such as Vikings in other RPGs.
• The Penultimate Fantasy Airship, an adventurable area, is a parody of Final Fantasy, where one fights trope-y enemies like the Protagonist, Spunky Princess and Quiet Healers
• The Palindome is another area where all adventures involve palindromes. Even the boss (Dr. Awkward) is a palindrome.

The Lens of the Puzzle (#58)

There are many unexpected possibilities in the game, in crafting, or in quest completion.

• Crafting anticheese + goat cheese = goat, and anticheese + cottage cheese = cottage
• There is a monster called the Fancy Bath Slug, which can only be defeated with an item called fancy bath salts

The game gives sufficient hints so one need not always refer to the wiki for clues.

The Lens of Challenge (#38)

The regular gameplay is very simple for casual playthrough, but there are always greater challenges for more serious players. For example, one may challenge oneself to complete a full ascension within 1 day – this requires serious planning, strategy and efficient use of resources. There are also special seasonal ascension challenges, such as “Bees hate you”, where one cannot use, eat, or wear anything that contains the letter ‘B’.

The Lens of Community (#98)

While the playthrough may seem to be mainly single-player, players can chat with other logged in players via chat in the side panel, buy and sell items via the Marketplace, or form guilds and clear guild dungeons together. Furthermore the developers are highly involved and often introduce world-wide events, such as Crimbo (KOL’s Christmas), where on one occasion, players had to work together to save Crimbo from mutant elves and the penguin mafia. Overall, the non-serious aspect of the game fostered a fun and helpful community where people could give advice to newer players and share knowledge. This is very important for a game full of Easter Eggs like Kingdom of Loathing.