Description

MapleStory is a free-to-play fantasy 2D-platformer MMORPG. In MapleStory, players can take on a role of a character and explore the Maple World freely. There are various things that players can do in-game, such as killing monsters for EXP, crafting equipment and potions, doing quests, participating in events, interacting with other players, etc. It has a lore revolving around a central figure, which they call the ‘Black Mage’, along with many other storylines which exists either in relation to the lore, or as independent regional-based storylines.

Website: http://www.maplesea.com/index

The Lens of The Elemental Tetrad (analysed by decreasing order of importance)

Mechanics: The presence of many in-game mechanics, such as party quests, bossing, item crafting, etc. mirrors the complexity of a world of free-exploration and player choice for an MMORPG.

Aesthetics: The graphics and music are designed such that they reinforce the fantasy aspect of the game.

Technology: Players get to control their character and access in-game options through various keys on their keyboard, thus reinforcing the concept of player control.

Story: This takes a bit of backseat since players get to decide, to a certain degree, whether they want to do quests or not. However, these quests reveal/supplement the game storyline if players do the quests, thus enriching the immersion factor.

All 4 elements combine to form a pretty-much-complete game that grants players plenty of free rein in-game.

The Lens of Emotion

The game generally gives off a happy vibe, but exploring the quests reveals some sad/tragic aspects of the Maple Lore that offers a twist on that happy vibe. This manner of making players ‘feel’ in the game could grant them more ownership of the game and enhance the immersive factor. Personally, I enjoy exploring the game storylines, thus I liked the way they approached this concept of emotions.

The Lens of Fun

The game offers many things that the player can do in-game, such as boss expeditions, party quests, participating in game events, crafting items, etc. However, despite their efforts to release new game content through new patches, the repetitive nature of certain mechanics in the new content causes the novelty to wear off. This is a primary reason for people I know who quit the game after playing it for some time.

The Lens of Fairness

Naturally, as an MMORPG, MapleStory is asymmetrical in terms of player power. However, there is a huge imbalance of player power, as only certain game content can be conquered by extremely strong players (which happens to be those who spend loads of real cash on in-game boosters). I find myself unable to participate in certain boss contents because of a variety of reasons relating to the imbalance in player power.

The Lens of Skill

Skill is demanded of players only in very tailored contents like party quests or killing a boss, since these involve unique and complex mechanics. Even if players initially lack the required skills, subsequent practice and in-game community guidance allows them to identify strategies on how to participate well in party plays or boss expeditions. Thus, any player can play the game with ease.

However, some bosses are made so insanely difficult, that even the appropriate level of skill MUST be accompanied by a high level of player strength to kill them.

The Lens of Economy

MapleStory has a complex economic system. There are 2 official game economies, which are ‘mesos’ and ‘@cash’. ‘Meso’ is the usual in-game currency, whereas ‘@cash’ is the currency that is purchasable in real cash, and is used to purchase things in the Cash Shop. In addition, they have ‘Free Markets’, where players can sell their wares to other players.

Its economy has largely spiraled out of control, since only players who spend ‘@cash’ can get and sell ‘godly’ items, that are worth A LOT, to other players. Thus, these players effectively dictate MapleStory’s economy. Furthermore, players can unofficially purchase ‘mesos’ or such ‘godly’ items with real cash, which worsens the state of the in-game economy.

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is an isometric-view single player, or online/offline cooperative play (up to 4 players) game set in the desserts of Egypt. The game immerses the player in arcade-shooting styled action sequences, where she/he fights creatures in the tombs, and puzzle solving sequences, which Tomb Raider games are famed for.

Website: https://crystald.com/projects/lara-croft-and-the-temple-of-osiris

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIcmQgUVMY8

Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

• Arcade-shooter and puzzle solving game, survival and overcoming obstacles essential to game progress
• Puzzles vary with the number of in-game players, the level of challenge increases with the number of players, i.e. each puzzle has 4 variants
• Players are able to wield a variety of weapons, discover artefacts which contribute to player statistics and characteristics, and collect gems to compete in level scoreboards and ranking with other players of the game
• Aim of each level is known through clear storytelling, and goal of each level contributes to the finale of the game

Story

Lara Croft is plunged into a mission to retrieve the bodily remains of the Egyptian sun god Osiris to defeat Set – the god of darkness, when a rival treasure hunter and her cursed themselves after displacing the Staff of Osiris, freeing the enemy.

The story progresses as players gather parts of Osiris, with interferences from in-game enemies and Set, and puzzles for obstacles. Each part contributes to the finale where Osiris is resurrected, and steers the game to its final battle sequence with Set.

Aesthetics

• High-angle isometric perspective gives the game a “god’s eye” depth-of-field, framing the gameplay to make it feel vast, and effectively exhibiting the impressive architecture of the game
• Playable weapons such as pistols, grenades and magical staffs, give a different feel and experience to the players. Pistols and grenades when triggered displays the usual bullets and explosions, while the magical staffs emit a bright beam the vaporises the enemy.
• Game has an overall earthly colour scheme to create the impression of tomb raiding, and bright lights and colours when engaged in combat or puzzles

Technology

The game is arcade-shooter styled, creating a engaging experience especially in cooperative mode. The game is playable on the PS4 and XONE, narrowing the gameplay experience to controller gaming.

Lenses and Reviews

Lens #6: The Lens of Problem Solving

The game immerses players in literal problem solving – puzzles, and survival. Problem solving can be more challenging if players opt to accomplish optional goals. The game generates different puzzles with respect to number of players, creating level variants. In favour of game design.

Lens #31: The Lens of Challenge

The gameplay comprises shooter, survival and puzzle solving. Challenges are overcome differently at variable difficulties based on playable character (e.g. Lara wields pistols while Horus wields a magical staff), and puzzles and its difficulty changes with the number of players. In favour of game design.

Lens #40: The Lens of Reward

The game instead of rewards only offers achievement of the goal at the end of the level, and few in-game wieldable items at certain stages. Rewards could be given out more to create an alternate more engaging gameplay to entice players to undertake optional tasks. As of current game can we played similarly with or without given rewards. Against game design.

Lens #66: The Lens of the Obstacle

The game’s objective is to defeat the antagonist through a series of puzzles and combat sequences. The storytelling ties the player to the antagonist and goal of the game. The obstacles increase in difficulty and new enemies and introduced as the game progresses. In this game, the antagonist appears in smaller forms throughout the gameplay and as a massive (literally) final boss in the finale. In favour of game design.

Crusaders Quest is a mobile game based on a ‘freemium’ price model. The user can use up to three ‘heroes’ to battle and complete stages, unlock more stories/cutscenes, and acquire more powerful heroes and equipment.

The combat of the game is an innovation upon the classic match-3 genre. Instead of a 2D array of blocks, there is only a single array of block. Each hero generates their own block, and players click on the blocks to activate them –  unleashing their respective powers. A maximum of 3 blocks can be activated at a time, and the damage/effectiveness of the skills scale with the number of blocks activated.

The Elemental Tetrad

Of the four elements, the mechanics tetrad stands out the most to me. The game innovates upon match-3 games like Candy Crush, to incorporate puzzle solving to the act. Thus, I found the mechanics easy to learn. However, the game shakes things up by incorporating the skills of the heroes to the activation of the blocks. I have to constantly make meaningful decisions in combat, like deciding if I should activate the current 2-chain, or wait for another block to appear for the strongest attack.

The aesthetics of the game is also very appealing. Although it is done with pixel-art, and lack fidelity, the artists have kept the style consistent for the game to be visually appealing. For the technology tetrad, it can be said that the platform (touchscreen mobile) of the game suits the mechanics very well. Tapping the screen to activate the blocks is very intuitive for me. The story tetrad also somewhat applies to the game, as there are some cutscenes and story progression in the game.

Lens 21 – The Lens of Goals (+ Flow)

The goal of the game is quite straightforward – to get the strongest heroes and equipment, and form the strongest team. To do this, I participate in combat, through storyline stages or player-versus-player arenas. This way, I can earn resources to spend on upgrading or purchasing new heroes. The smaller game loop, the combat itself, is even more straightfoward. Simply solve the match-3 puzzles to unleash your heroes’ attacks, and whittle the health of the enemies to defeat them. I find it very easy to get into the flow – the stages are easily accessible, and upon completing the stages, I return to the ‘town’ to look at the rewards, and start a new stage.

Lens 36 – The Lens of Chance

Acquiring heroes is tedious process in this game – through random ‘rolls’, something like opening card packs in Trading Card Games. To acquire a new hero, players must buy  items called ‘Contracts’, through in-game currency or real money. Each Contract will award the player with a random hero, and sometimes even their strongest variants. It should be noted that players can also train their weak heroes and ‘promote’ them into their stronger variants, but it takes a considerable amount of time and resources. Thus, the game is balanced in the sense that power can be acquired through luck, or can be ‘grinded’. I find that opening contracts to get random heroes also makes the game exciting, as it allows me to take interesting risks to acquire strong heroes.

Lens 39 – The Lens of Meaningful Choices

As I can choose up to three heroes to form a party, I am forced to make meaningful decisions on the team composition. Should I slot in a healer to keep the team alive? Or will I rather fill that slot with an offensive character, to kill the enemies before the team takes substantial damage? These choices push me to strategize and exploit the strength and synergies of the different heroes. I also like that the developer also actively seeks dominant strategies (overpowered team compositions), and tweaks them to be balanced – to keep the game fun and choices meaningful.

Lens 34 – The Lens of Skill

Combat in the game consists mainly of solving puzzles, through tapping the blocks match-3 style. Different team compositions also require different strategies of activating the blocks. For example, some skills will weaken the defenses of the enemy, allowing me to activate my strongest offensive-type attack after that for maximum impact. As I play, I get more used to the playstyle of my current team, allowing me to exploit more of their strengths. This way, I have the feeling that I have gained more mastery of the game.

Lens 34 – The Lens of Emergence

Each hero in the game has its own unique skills and abilities. I find that this adds a very interesting depth to the gameplay, as it allows me to discover emergent gameplay. For example, there is a hero who can keep one other hero alive no matter how much damage that hero takes. I paired this hero with a tank, who could redirect all damage from the team to it, effectively creating an unkillable team as long as these combo was upkept.

The Settlers III is a strategy game, the third installment in the famous Settlers series. The game was released in 1998 on PC. The Settlers III’s focus lies on controlling a settlement’s economy, which eventually enables the player to build up an army and defeat the enemies. The economy is a complex system with a long production chain. Each type of resources has its own type of building where it is produced.

Wikipedia article (no official website is currently maintained): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Settlers_III

Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1g_VOcXeI0

Analysis of the game through lenses

1: The lens of essential experience

The essential experience in Settlers III is building up the settlement’s economy through carefully balancing all elements of the production chain. Because all resources are physical objects, it is crucial to take transportation of resources into consideration when placing the buildings. An important part of the experience is being able to see a well functioning settlement, which looks like a living organism.

2: The lens of surprise

The element of surprise is a bit lacking from the game – the differences between the maps don’t introduce enough variety and the gameplay eventually boils down to the same process in every mission. The only moments when the player can be surprised are a) when the time of the opponent’s attack comes earlier / the scale of the attack is larger than expected, or b) when the player finds stacks of resources that are sometimes placed in distant locations of the map. Some elements of the map like a shipwreck on a coast are supposed to introduce more variety to the maps, but it is only an aesthetic addition and doesn’t affect the gameplay.

5: The lens of endogenous value

There are certain resources in the game that are on top of the production chain – notably gold and weapons.Thanks to the fact that all resources are physical objects, the sheer wealth of a settlement is shown not simply by a number somewhere in the UI, but by the resources one can directly see lying on the ground. This motivates players to accumulate wealth and is a rewarding sight. One of the most pleasant experiences is when after one conquers part of the opponent’s land, the carriers swarm the conquered land, collecting valuable resources and bringing them back to the main settlement. The main value in the game lies in the resources.

7: The lens of the elemental tetrad

From the tetrad, the elements that are the most important for The Settlers III are aesthetics and mechanics. The story is almost inexistent – in the campaigns there is some backstory, involving competition between ancient gods and the diaries of the nations’ leaders, but it appears only between the missions and not within the game itself. Regarding technology, the game is a classic 2D isometric view strategy game, only the elements of the world have been originally modelled in 3D and then converted to 2D images, which gives them a distinct look. The aesthetic contributes greatly to the experience of the game – the visual style is very idyllic, with bright colors and good animations. The sound design is very important, with a lot of ambient sounds of the settlement and all the performed jobs, adding to the feel of the settlement as a living organism.

The mechanics are the most important element, as the character of the game lies in the focus on managing the production and trasportation of resources – thus making the game different from most titles.

17: The lens of pleasure

A few main elements give players pleasure: the colorful graphics, vivid music and sound effects contributing to a laid-back experience; the experience of seeing the settlement live its own life; the collecting of resources; the experience of destroying the enemy’s settlement and gaining their resources.

25: The lens of goals

The goal of the game is usually to capture all the opponent’s territory. However, this tends to get a bit boring towards the end of the game, where it is clear that the player is winning. The most emotional phase of a conflict are usually the first attacks, where both parties have amassed large armies. Later on, when the main forces of the enemy have already been destroyed, the conquest stops being interesting. Sometimes the goal of a mission is to collect a certain number of resources, but this doesn’t drastically change the gameplay.

42: The lens of simplicity/complexity

The process of controlling the economy is a complex task, therefore several other elements have been simplified: all settlers move automatically, performing their tasks. The player can control the priorities – what is the most important good to be transported etc. On one hand, this lets the player to focus on a higher level of management, however this automation sometimes leads to problems, where the player would hope to have more control over the actions of the settlers. Military units are controlled manually, but the AI behind the execution of orders is not perfect and usually the only possible tactic is amassing a large number of soldiers and then sending them all to attack the opponent, hoping to succeed.

The game: Invisible Inc

Invisible Inc is a turn-based strategy game with a heavy emphasis on stealth and infiltration. The player control a squad of spy operatives to infiltrate procedurally-generated environments to steal information, money and equipment (among other objectives) while avoiding guards and automated security. Unlike in other strategy games, players are encouraged to avoid direct confrontations at all costs because all player-controlled units “die” instantly upon being shot at. The game is still in beta phase but the gameplay is already very fleshed out and feels complete.

Game website: http://www.invisibleincgame.com/

A “Let’s Play” episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pekIWhvi4A

My own experience

I’d already had about 30 hours of experience with the game prior to playing the game for the sake of this assignment and was already familiar with the mechanics and most of the equipment and abilities in the game.

The lens of Essential Experience

It was immediate to me that the essential experience of this game is about being a spy (or being an operator directing a group of spies), sneaking around corporate buildings to steal secrets while evading security. It made me feel really cool when I was able to execute my tactics and overcome the security, or when I was able to evade danger just in the nick of time. This sense of accomplishment is further enhanced by the fact that the game does not allow the player to reload to an earlier point in the game (commonly known as “Ironman Mode” in turn-based games) and any mistakes will have permanent consequences, hence the game’s challenges can not be overcome by simple trial and error.

The lens of Elemental Tetrad

Normal view vs Hacking interface

The game has very low technical requirements as it runs smoothly even on computers without discrete GPUs. However I was still very impressed by the visuals thanks to the distinct art style and very smart use of colours. Mechanics-wise, the game is very innovative as it combines elements from two very different genres (stealth and turn-based strategy) as well as bringing in twists of its own. I especially like the “hacking” interface which adds another layer of strategy on top of moving your units around on a map. The story in this game takes a backseat to the gameplay and does not appear to be significant, at least at this stage as the game is still in development and not yet fully released.

The lens of Surprise + The lens of Curiosity

All levels the players experience (save for the tutorial levels) are procedurally-generated so players will never see the map twice. It kept me on my toes at all times, since I never knew what to expect behind a closed door or around the next corner. Moving my units around recklessly could result in a nasty surprise for me (like barging inside a room full of armed guards and not having enough Action Points to escape). At the same time, I always felt the urge to fully explore each level, even at the risk of losing my units because I never knew if I had missed out on lootable items or money unless I searched through every corner of the map.

The lens of Chance

While the levels are automatically generated, the actual gameplay leaves almost nothing to chance (unlike the majority of strategy games which rely on probability to calculate the chance to hit or damage done). The same action will result in the same consequence every time. This is another aspect I really like about the game as it made me feel like I was in control all the time. It made the game feel fair as I never lost because of bad luck. Also as the lack of chance removes some element of unpredictability from the gameplay and it allowed me to plan and execute much more complex tactics than otherwise, which felt really satisfying.

My Friend’s experience

My friend had had no prior experience with the game, though he is familiar with video games in general. I briefly explained some of the basic mechanics to him while intentionally leaving things for him to discover on his own. He played the tutorial level and three automatically-generated levels.

The lens of Essential Experience

My friend was quickly able to figure out the objectives of the game and had a basic idea of what he had to do (use stealth and avoid front assault, etc). He remarked that the setting was “interesting”.

The lens of Elemental Tetrad

The visual style of the game seems to have made an impression on him. Not being familiar with turn-based game, he was initially confused by how the turn system worked, but was able to figure the game out after I had explained it to him. He enjoyed the game play much more as he started to figure out more of the game mechanics and was able to “properly” play the game. He did seem to be interested in the story as he took time to read through the (rather lengthy) text briefings before each mission.

The lens of Surprise + The lens of Curiosity

My friend was not aware the game levels were generated by the computer, but since it was his first time playing the game, he would still be unfamiliar with the maps anyway. He was caught by his first surprise very early into the game and lost one of his units. After that, he started playing very conservatively and tried to avoid any risk to his remaining unit. He rushed to complete each level as fast as possible, without fully exploring the map and ended up missing out on many rewards scattered across the levels, in order to protect his last unit.

The lens of Chance

My friend also realised the results of actions are not determined by chance in the game and the loss of his unit was not because of bad luck.

Comparison: familiarity makes all the difference

After comparing my friend’s experience with my own, I realised how much the difference in experience, both with the particular game and the genre, impact the gameplay. This is especially true for games that are unforgiving and have a steep learning curve like this one.

The lens of Essential Experience

The futuristic sci-fi setting is immediately familiar to most people without being too much of a cliché or feeling overdone. The gameplay however, is unforgiving and difficult and this can turn off casual players or those who are easily frustrated (dozens of hours invested into the game can be instantly lost because of a single mistake). This seems to be intentional on the developer’s part as the welcome message at the home screen mentions the game is “deep” and “hardcore” right off the bat.

The lens of Elemental Tetrad

Both my friend and I agreed the game is able to create good looking visuals without requiring high-powered hardware, which is excellent. The mechanics, however, is where the game is strongest at it feels tight, balanced and fair. However, while the game explains its unique features quite well in the tutorial, does not do a good job of explaining many of its genre mechanics to new players, and those new to turn-based games can feel lost. The story is insignificant at this point.

The lens of Surprise + The lens of Curiosity

The choice to use procedurally-generated levels instead of hand-crafted ones was an excellent choice because you can never know what to expect no matter how experienced you are with the game. This forces players to always be cautious and have a backup plan in case of unpleasant surprises. The fact that you cannot reload to an earlier point reinforces this even further as other games allow players to negate the element of surprise with trial-and-error. The level design also piques the player’s curiosity as each uneplored corner of the map could hide more treasures.

The lens of Chance

In a game where all actions have permanent consequences and the player’s units are extremely fragile, removing the element of chance works in the game’s favour as it ensures a stroke of bad luck does not ruin the experience for players. It also makes the game feel more fair as how successful a player is with the game depends only on their skill.

GAME CHOSEN FOR ANALYSIS

DESCRIPTION
Theme Hospital is a business simulation game developed by Bullfrog productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1997 that tests your management skills. It is the thematic successor to Theme Park, which is also produced by Bullfrog, and was recently made free for download for the period of January 2015. The game is set in a hospital and requires players to complete levels by buying and placing rooms or facilities in the hospital with the end goal of raising its financial valuation, cure rate and reputation.

DOWNLOAD
https://www.origin.com/en-sg/store/buy/theme-hospital-origin/pc-download/base-game/standard-edition

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Puzzle & Dragons

Through the Lenses of Game Design

Puzzle & Dragons (PAD) is a puzzle game created by GungHo Online Entertainment for the mobile platforms, iOS, Android OS, and Kindle Fire which combines both tile-matching puzzle elements as well as strategic elements that requires the player to acquire, train, and fight with a team of monsters that range from standard fantasy fare like dragons and fairies, mythical beasts and gods from mythologies all over the world, to even collaborations with famous entertainment series.

Website: http://www.gungho.jp/pad/

Gameplay Demo: http://youtu.be/ONDUtudZ9jk

The Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics:

One key feature that separates it from other match-three games like Bejeweled and Candy Crush Saga is that the orb that the player picks up is allowed to move as far across the game board as the player wishes to, instead of just swapping places with one of its neighbours. This allows for a more challenging form of gameplay as it requires the player to create as many combinations of not only 3 orbs, but 4, 5 or even up to 30 orbs (the game board’s size)!

Another feature is being able to collect, train and eventually field a team of powerful monsters to fight against the other monsters — lending a role-playing mechanic to the game. Monsters come with both skills and leader skills which add interesting twists to the game by giving bonus damage or health to the player’s team of monsters.

Aesthetics & Technology:

Contrary to the slew of mobile games out in the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace these days which boast bleeding age graphics and stunning visual effects, PAD maintains a simple form of graphics that is simple to draw and yet visually appealing with its cute cartoonish graphics. Although given that the game was released about 3 years ago, the menus do look a tad outdated. It is also apparent that many of the stages share the same background design, ranging from catacombs, forests, dungeons and even outer space. However, for collaboration events, the game’s artists tend to create unique backdrops for that particular collaboration to add a sense of exclusivity to the event.

Story:

For a game that has over 41 million downloads, it does not have a story per se, unlike its spin-off Puzzle & Dragons Z on the Nintendo 3DS. This goes to show that a story is not always required to make a popular game.

Based on the descriptions from the 4 various elements listed above, it is apparent that Gungho is not trying to make a game that is overly complicated with fancy graphics, seat-gripping storyline, and complex gameplay mechanics. But instead, it is trying to focus on only one thing: make a simple to learn but yet difficult to master puzzle game that is appealing to all ages and make it outstanding.

The Lens of Chance

In this puzzle game, even if the player possesses preternatural puzzle solving skills does not guarantee absolute success in the game if luck is not on his side. That is because luck is a major factor in many aspects of the game. Such as whether the orbs that drop onto the game board to replace the cleared orbs can form additional combos to increase the damage multiplier, to see if the monster that has been defeated drops as an egg to be collected by the player to add to his team, or even if the player is able to obtain rare and powerful monsters from the gachapon machine.

Through carefully observing players, it is evident that luck (chance) is a major factor in this game no matter how skilled the player is.

The Lens of Economy

A key aspect that keeps the developers in business despite releasing the game for free is the sale of in-game currency (magic stones). In the game, magic stones are used to either restore the player’s stamina (allowing him to play more), continue a stage in which the player has died in, roll for rare monsters via a gachapon machine and many other features. Magic stones are given to the player every time he completes a dungeon as well as through events via the in-game mail system. Whilst this may seem rather contradictory — giving out free money to the players (each stone costs S$1.20, with discounts given for bulk purchases) — it is, in my book, a fantastic marketing ploy to entice players to purchase them. By giving the players a taste of what magic stones can do, they would more likely to be enticed into buying more magic stones instead of waiting for the off-chance that the daily gift for the day is a magic stone.

The Lens of Emotion

Being a puzzle game with a major factor of randomness thrown in, it is only appropriate that we consider the emotions that a player expresses as he plays the game. When I was observing my friend who was playing the game, she displayed an outburst of emotion in the form of rage by throwing down her phone on the table when she died in the game. It wasn’t until I wore the lens of emotion that I realised that I too occasionally do the same. During my observation of the AppBank employees, it is also apparent on their faces the various types of emotions that they are going through as they were hoping for another combo via sky fall orbs or rolling the magic stone gachapon machine. From the anticipation on their faces to the prayers that they were mumbling under their breath, it is clear that through the randomness factor of the game that we experience a myriad of emotions as we play the game.

The Lens of Motivation

The more the player plays, the more likely he would see other players whom he can add to his friend list in order to use their party’s leader monster as a member of his party. Many a times, these monsters are those whom the player has either never encountered or do not have in their team. By seeing these new and powerful monsters whom they can temporarily add to their team, players will be more motivated to try to acquire them so as to make them a permanent part of their team. This lends a sense of motivation to the game.

Collaborations with different popular entertainment franchises are, as mentioned earlier, prominently featured in the game. Bringing with it limited-time dungeons and their own unique collaboration gachapon machines on which players can spend 5 magic stones for a single roll of the machine to possibly acquire exclusive monsters. More often than not, it is unlikely that the player has enough magic stones to roll enough times to get all of the possible drops from the timed gachapon machine and/or the dungeon. Giving the player a sense of initial disappointment (as you can’t always get them all) and motivation (to acquire more magic stones and/or a stronger team of monsters).

Endless Legend is a 4X turn-based fantasy strategy game.

The term 4X, coined by Alan Emrich, stands for “explore, expand, exploit and exterminate“. Perhaps the most popular example of such a game is Sid Meier’s Civilization, which just so happens to also be a turn-based strategy game. This is why, it is not exactly inaccurate to describe Endless Legend as Civilization but with a fantasy setting and environment.

The game is set in the Endless universe where other Endless games (which are of different genres) also take place. The player is in control of a faction of aliens on a planet called Auriga. The player fights both the environment and other players to satisfy one of many victory conditions before any other player.

http://www.endless-legend.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTt1c9IIoRI

Analysis

The Elemental Tetrad

• Aesthetics: set in a fantasy world, the artwork and the environment is very diverse and beautiful.
• Mechanics: the game is turn-based and has deep strategy, with multiple ways to achieve victory.
• Story: although there is no campaign mode, the lore in the world is very detailed, vast and immersive
• Technology: because of the myriad of strategic options available to the player, the computer players take considerable CPU power to process. However, because it’s a turn-based game, the negative effects are minimized.
• Overall: I feel there is a very good balance between the 4 elements. In fact, I can see how they complement each other and work in synergy to produce a well-rounded game.

The Lens of Secrets

• Like most territorial strategy games, Endless Legend has fog of war. This means players can only see limited areas of the game map in places where the player has units or has a diplomatic agreement to share vision with another player in the map.
• The map is in constant flux, when a player moves a unit away from an area, the area might not be the same when they regain vision by putting another unit in the area.
• Some factions have access to more information than the others. For example, the Drakken, which is the diplomatic faction, knows the positions of the capitols of all players in map; the Roving Clans, which is the economic power faction, has insider trading information of all players in the marketplace.
• A good balance of secrecy between players keeps the gameplay interesting.

The Lens of Expected Value

• When units attack, there are 4 kinds of outcomes: critical fail, fumble, normal hit and critical hit. These outcomes have odds that are shown to the player and they are different for different matchups between any 2 units.
• Knowing the odds, the player can–for example–gamble massive damage on critical hits, or consistent normal hits without misses.
• A good understanding of the odds is important for unit survivability.
• Even though this introduces some random chance to the game, random chance is not overpowering because it could be calculated so as to minimize the effects of randomness on the outcome of battle.

The Lens of Goals

• There are several goals to the game but all the players need to do is achieve one of them before any other player.
• The different victories are: Wonder, Conquest, Supremacy, Elimination, Scientific, Economic, Diplomatic and Score
• Each race is geared towards a specific kind of victory, but the player is free to pursue any other kind of victory to win the game.
• The player are free to pursue short-term goals such as quests, exploring and small battles but should make sure they also have lasting long-term benefit or they may not win the game.
• The myriad of viable winning goals makes a flexible experience.

The Lens of Functional Space

• The game map is discrete and is in a hexagonal grid.
• The game map is 2D. The world is cylindrical (wraparound on the east and west, but boundaries on the north and south)
• There are smaller subspaces in the game map for military engagement. It also utilises a hexagonal grid and it is connected to the bigger game map at the hexagonal tile where two or more armies engage.
• The two levels of spaces makes battles up-close inside closed terrain, while making plenty of room to expand and explore territory; making the best of both worlds.

The Lens of Economy

• The game has 7 different resources: Food, Industry, Dust, Science, Influence, Luxury Resources and Strategic Resources.
• In general, the player has to build some buildings to generate any particular resource. Also, the type of resources are generally dependant on the terrain of the map.
• The player can direct portions of the population of a city into either Food, Industry, Dust, Science or Influence as he pleases.
• Units and building have a Dust operating cost. If the player runs out of Dust (essentially money), he is forced to sell off units and buildings.
• There are diminishing returns for every resource, so a player must balance production of each resource for optimal economic performance.

The Lens of Fairness

• The game is asymmetrical in the sense that each race is good at certain things but bad at different things.
• The game is also asymmetrical in the sense that terrain is randomly generated and have different properties.
• The asymmetric gameplay makes gameplay more interesting and more fantasy-like. It opens up more possibilities of cooperation and competition between players.
• The game feels fair and each race has similar chances of winning. The outcome is usually decided by skill and strategy rather than random chance.

The Lens of Balance

• Even though the gameplay is asymmetrical, the game feels balanced.
• Race abilities are not overpowered because they can be countered by other players.
• Differences in abilities forces players to strategize in order to exploit own advantages and enemy’s disadvantages, a key part in many strategic games.

Game Website: https://terraria.org/
Gameplay Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0scnF8pXfU

My Experience

Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

• Aesthetics
  • Terraria is done entirely with cute 2D sprites. It made me appreciate the beauty and simplicity of good pixel art.
  • It was refreshing to play a game with such simple graphics after having almost every other games coming out in modern 3D graphics.
• Technology
  • As it is a 2D game, it has low system requirements and hence very accessible to most players.
  • It is also available in numerous platforms, ranging from PC to consoles and smartphones and handheld gaming devices.
• Mechanics
  • It is a sandbox game, with elements of exploration, building and action.
• Story
  • There is no storyline. I am free to do what I want in the game, such as choosing to go exploring and slaying monsters to gather materials or spending the day building impressive feats of architecture with basic building blocks.

Lens of Curiosity

• The randomly generated world of Terraria was filled with numerous secret caverns and dungeons, littered with great treasures that I could use to beef up my character’s combat or exploration abilities, or with rare materials to use to craft them myself.

A Beehive! Underground? Wait, what? I hope I get the gun that shoot bees at my enemies!

• When I dug deep enough, I discovered the existence of the Underworld. It resided some of the strongest monsters I have encountered at this point, as well as a boss I had to defeat which triggered the world to go into ‘Hard Mode’, spawning even stronger monsters and rarer materials for me to discover.

This must be how the creators envisioned hell to look like

Lens of the Toy

• I was obsessed with building things, so the ability to freely build stuff is a huge bonus to extend the gameplay length. I clocked 148 hours spent mostly on building stuff.

This is what 148 hours of work look like

• After gathering enough materials, I was able to create a giant floating fortress that has:
  • Death traps to kill invaders
  • Sky bridge across the entire world for fast access
  • Teleporters to teleport to the ground floor or Underworld
  • Arena to summon and fight bosses
  • Pixel art of Charizard and Blastoise (sorry I stopped before I did Venusaur)
  • Battery powered by enslaving animals to jump on buttons repeatedly
  • A failed attempt to make an aquarium

A glass dome in a glass dome with a lifeless aquarium

Sorry Venusaur, I ran out of green tiles

Lens of Time

• The duration of the game is entirely dependent on the player. There is no ‘story’ for you to complete, so the game only ends when you believe you have ran out of things to do.
• I have reached a point where I have explored the entire world and exhausted most resources. I will have to move to a new world to find more materials or challenges.

Lens of Chance

• To increase replayability, the developers have implemented the world in such a way that not all materials or events can be found in a single world. You will have to replay on new worlds and hope that the thing you need will spawn there by chance.
• Rare equipments also drop by chance from specific bosses which will take time to summon and farm.

Friend’s Experience

Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

• Aesthetics
  • He had less appreciation of such art styles, preferring art that is more detailed.
• Technology
  • He was able to install Terraria on his computer without any system requirement problems.
  • It has high compatibility as expected.
• Mechanics
  • He was more in tuned with the combat gameplay of the game, seemingly more aggressive and wants to kill stuff.
• Story
  • To be the very best, like no one ever was. This also meant destroying every living soul he encountered.

Lens of Interest Curve

• His interest was drawn towards exploration and peaked when he discovered the existence of bosses hidden underground or summoned.
• Time was spent researching on how to tackle the next bosses and finding better equipment.
• Conversely, he did minimal building before running off to explore again.
• His interest in the game was short-lived and stopped when he ran out of bosses or opponents to beat.

Bosses from your nightmares

Lens of Skill

• Despite being underequipped for some challenges, he still attempted them head on, sometimes emerging victorious through clever strategies or skill.
• His mastery of his arsenal of equipment was also pivotal to his success. E.g. Skilfully using grappling hooks to manoeuvre out of tight spots, using ranged weapons to put distance between him and the enemy.

Lens of Competition

• When he lost interest in the bosses, he turned to online servers to do PvP against other skilled players.
• Fights were fast paced and challenging if both sides have equally overpowered equipment.
• However, the gap created by different level of equipment was quite impossible to be bridged by skill alone.

Cant hit me bro

Lens of Balance

• Through collecting an arsenal of equipment, it is apparent that there are some with overpowered and game-breaking effects. E.g. Life steal, homing projectiles, insane damage, etc.
• Combat becomes a lot easier upon possession of such weapons and game becomes less challenging.
• You stand no chance against opponents with these weapons, unless you have these as well.

I guess I spoke too soon

Analysis

It is very apparent that my friend and I have very differing play style, with me being drawn towards the sandbox building aspect of the game, while my friend was more inclined towards the challenge-oriented aspect of defeating bosses and PvP fights. It is impressive how a game can cover these two seemingly disjoint aspects and mechanic and allow them to complement each other.

The lack of story did not affect either of our enjoyment. In fact, in such open-world sand box games, the players are free to create their own story. For me, I played like an architect relishing in the freedom to create what I envisioned and designing complex mechanisms from simple technology to power my flying fortress home. As for my friend, he played like an adventurer venturing out to slay all evil to become the strongest character. In this game, you are what you want to be.

Because of such differing gameplay styles, we found that there were also multiple different lenses that described our different experience. This shows that much effort went into making both the creation and adventuring aspect of the game fun for the players.

Brief Description
Dota 2 is an online multiplayer battle arena game in a 3D environment, presented from a high-angle 3^rd person perspective. Dota 2 is played in matches involving two teams of five players, each occupies a stronghold at opposite corners of the map. Each stronghold contains a central building called the “Ancient”, which the opposite team must destroy to win the match. Each player controls a “Hero” character and he is able to level up his/her character by gaining experience from killing “creeps” or enemy heroes and collecting gold, acquiring items to strengthen the abilities of his/her character and eventually destroy the opponent team’s “Ancient” to achieve victory.

Website : www.dota2.com

Preview : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuZmHEGqXQ

My Experience when I am playing

I am an experienced player of the game hence I am already well aware of the goals and objectives of the game, however this game never fails to bring the element of surprise up onto the table. Analysing with the Lens of Surprise (#4), the surprise element in the game is mainly due to the unpredictable element that other players may bring into the game and with the many different “heroes”/ characters, different variations and combination of skills which makes each gaming experience unique.

The in game mechanics is also very interesting as the game always takes place in the same landscape but by inserting a new hero/character, it introduce another set of new challenges. Using the Lens of Challenge (#38), the challenging aspect of the game comes from two components; firstly, understanding the skill mechanics of your chosen hero/ character and next is the skill level of your opponents and their ability to utilize the skills of their heroes/ characters. Although there may be a different set of mechanics for a different hero/ character, the goal remains unchanged, which is to destroy the opponents’ “Ancient” before the opponent destroy yours; By the Lens of Goals (#32), the goal of the game is simple and concrete.

The game requires good judgement and good choices to be made by the players, from item builds for your hero/ character to decision making during battles and these choices made throughout the game may affect the eventual result of the game. Using the Lens of Meaningful Choice (#39), these choices indeed makes the game more complex and difficult for newcomers to pick up right away.

What frustrates me the most while I was playing the game is the lack of teamwork during team battles and lack of communication within the team, regardless playing with strangers or with friends; this usually leads to a one-sided game that is in favour of the opponent’s team. Analysing this using the Lens of Cooperation (#44), the only mode communication the game offers is a chat box which requires you to take your hands off the things you are currently doing and put the effort into translating the things you want to tell your teammates into chat messages and your teammate on the other hand has to also take his/her time off to read your message. This task becomes too demanding when you are at crucial moments of the game, especially during battles. Other alternatives are to get 3rd party softwares that provide you with the platform to make verbal communication with your friends during the game or shout across the room to pass the message to your friend. However, these other alternatives do not apply when you are playing with strangers on the other side of the planet.

Last but not least, I would like to credit the game’s graphic and artwork. The game has very responsive animation feedbacks when a player clicks on a location to move his/her hero to as well as clicks on the hero skills to cast them. This certainly is a plus point for the aesthetics of the game.

Observing a friend play

In this observation, I find a friend who is new to the game to obtain results that have more contrast to what have been obtained earlier.  My friend had a hard time choosing a hero to start with; this is due to the many options available and reading through the skills of each hero takes a huge amount of time, eventually, he used up all the time given during the hero selection phase. After taking a long time picking his hero of choice, he ended up taking even a longer time to look at the item shops to purchase items for his hero. By using the Lens of Meaningful Choice (#39), the game has failed to provide him a more beginner friendly approach to making these choices.

Despite being new to the game, he is still able to manoeuvre his hero to the place he wanted and targeting his enemies successfully. By the Lens of Control (#59), the game is able to provide him with the ability to control his character the way he wanted to.

However, being put up with players that have experience, he is at a great disadvantage. One huge factor that contributes to that, is the rate where the players are earning the in-game resources; to accurately deal the last damage to the enemy units will earn the player a certain amount of in-game resource and with his experience, he barely gets some with a bit of luck. This can be a big deciding factor to who have the upper hand during a clash between the teams. With the Lens of Skill (#34), this game certainly demands a certain level of skill, concentration and training from the players.

Although the goal of the game is simple and clear, my friend is unable to grasp the different in-game mechanics even at the end of the game. The complexity of the game attributes from the wide variety of items available and their combinations to form a stronger item and the skills of the heroes, the opponents’, his teammates’ and his, by analysing with The Lens of SimplicityComplexity (#48).

However, my friend do find the interface being intuitive, he knows where his health indicator is, where to find the amount of in-game resources he has, where to locate his heroes’ skills and he knows which are the enemy units and which are his allied units. By using the Lens of Transparency (#62), the game did a fairly good job designing an intuitive interface.

Comparison

Both observations reaps very different results, however, one very obvious fact is that experience definitely plays a big role in this game. And by the Lens of Skill vs Chance (#41), the scale heavily leans towards the skill side. It demands quite an amount of skill and high level of concentration from the player in their ability to make good decisions during the game. I being an experience player definitely enjoyed the game more as compared to my friend, being new to the game.

Hence by using the Lens of Interest Curve (#69), in this comparison, is an exponential upward curve when you plot the level of interest against the experience level of the player.

Looking at the Lens of Meaningful Choices (#39), the amount of choices to make in the game is too much to handle for a beginner, in my friend’s case whereas for a more experience player, these meaningful decisions makes the game more interesting and enjoyable as a whole.

The game considers the fact that players may not be able get any in-game resources throughout the game and thus implemented the feature where the players are able to gain the in-game resources periodically with time. This feature at the very least gives my friend to ability to buy items from the item shops despite the fact that he is unable to gain the in-game resources by other means. Using the Lens of Economy (#52), the game has kept his economy rather balanced.