Game: Dishonored

Website: http://www.dishonored.com/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkNPOMfxWY

Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcD28sNiB0w

Dishonored, a first person shooter action game produced by the famous developer behind Skyrim, is a game that allows players to play as Corvo, a royal protector turned assassin. The story is sets on the city of Dunwall, a steampunk themed environment that has been invaded by a rat plague.

Corvo is the royal protector of the Queen, Elizabeth which was killed at the beginning of the story and her daughter, Emily is kidnapped. Corvo is accused of being responsible for the murder of the queen and the kidnapping of Princess Emily. With amazing sword skills, sharp shooting skills and a gift of supernatural powers, players will be playing as Corvo to get his revenge.

The Lens of Essential Experience

The game offers the experience of playing as an assassin that not only utilizes the usual swords, guns and bombs but also the gift of supernatural powers like Blink to teleport towards far and hard to reach places, Possession to possess animals or humans to get around the places without being noticed, Freeze Time to stop time and do lots of interesting stuffs like grabbing flying bullet on midair and many more. This kind of experience is very rare in lot of first person shooting games as majority of them only focus on making interesting and unique guns instead of giving the player supernatural powers. One exception is BioShock series. In fact, the developer actually admits that they were inspired by the Plasmids in BioShock games. Overall, this game gives players a new and different first person shooting experience.

The Lens of Fun

Dishonored is fun in the sense that it provides lots of ways or combinations to kill the enemies. You can sneak in and struck your sword into the throat from the back, you can hardwire an electric passage to fry the enemies that pass through it, you can summon a bunch of rats to eat the enemies alive, you can reflect an explosive back to the enemies using Windblast, you can just Windblast the enemies out of the edge of a high ground, you can Freeze Time, possess an enemy and move to the front of a flying bullet, and many other interesting combinations waiting to be uncovered by the gamers. Overall, this game gives players the fun of trial and error in killing the enemies with a variety of arsenals at their disposals.

The Lens of Problem Solving

Unlike many assassin games, this one actually encourages players not to kill the targets. Killing more people will actually leads to a bad ending. So players are encouraged to accomplish every mission with a no kill run. So the biggest and main problem to be solved in this game is how not to kill as an assassin? For every mission, there is a way to somehow make the target disappear forever instead of being dead. Players are challenged to explore the environment to look for this alternate no kill method. This game claims that it offers lots of way to finish the same mission. However, for a no kill run, it actually offers only one method for each mission. So it is a disappointment for players who wish to play another method of not killing the target.

The Lens of Unification

Dishonored main theme is the dark reality of a rat plague infected city in the world that utilizes steampunk technologies and the Outsider’s dark arts. Overall, Dishonored has a constant theme throughout the game. You can always see rats roaming around the street that reminds you that the city is infected by rat plague. You can always see steampunk technologies used by the citizens of Dunwall. You can always see other people who can use the supernatural powers similar to the protagonist’s.

The Lens of Resonance

The most powerful and special thing of Dishonored is the combination of super power plus guns and sword stealth actions, and the contradicting property of not killing people even though you are an assassin that seeks revenge and that only by not killing people that you can obtain the good ending. In fact, it is so unique that it was nominated as Game of the Year by many gaming journalist and actually won some of them both by editor’s choice and by people’s vote.

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CS3247 – Game Development     Assignment – 1

Option 1:

Game:      Football Manager 2013

Link:          http://www.footballmanager.com/

Lens 6:     The Lens of Problem Solving

l  What problem does my game ask the players to solve?

The game asks the player to take control of a football club as a manager and try to at least achieve the seasonal goal set by the board.

l  Are there hidden problems to solve that arise as part of gameplay?

In order to achieve the best possible results, the player has to strengthen his team within the financial restrictions set by the board. The player also has to set up the right tactical instructions according to the opponent in order to win the matches.

l  How can my game generate new problems so that players keep coming back?

Other teams managed by the AI will also try to strengthen their own team as the transfer window and provide tougher challenges. The player can also choose to apply the managerial position from another team to take a new challenge in a new environment.

Lens 29:   The Lens of Chance

l  What in my game is truly random? What parts just feel random?

Most of the events are dependent on one or more attributes. For example, a player will be more likely to be injured if he has a high “injury proneness” attribute value.

l  Does the randomness give the players positive feelings of excitement and challenge, or negative feelings of hopelessness and lack of control?

Most of the time it gives the player negative feelings of hopelessness and lack of control.

l  Would changing my probability distribution curves improve my game?

Changing the probability distribution could certainly make the player more happy, but it also takes away the realism of the game.

l  Do players have the opportunity to take interesting risks?

Yes. For example, deploying a very attacking tactic when playing against a much better team.

l  What is the relationship between chance and skill in my game?

Most of the time skill is more important. However, a period with bad luck could change things around.

Zeng Fanbin     U096824W

Lens 31:   The Lens of Challenge

l  What are the challenges in my game?

The challenge is to achieve the board’s requirement within the financial limit they have set.

l  Are they too easy, too hard or just right?

For a skillful player, it could be easy. For a beginner, it could be very difficult.

l  Can my challenges accommodate a wide variety of skill levels?

Yes. Some players are good at spotting talents. Some are good at setting up tactics. Some are very good at exposing opposition’s tactical weaknesses.

Lens 32:   The Lens of Meaningful Choice

l  What choices am I asking the players to make?

The players have to decide which position does the team need to improve on and try to sign players who can play in that certain position.

l  Are they meaningful? How?

They are meaningful as your success will depend on your quality of squad.

l  Am I giving the player the right number of choices? Would more make them feel more powerful? Would fewer make the game clearer?

The player has to discover the choices himself that are available.

l  Are there any dominant strategies in my game?

Usually there are certain good players who would not cost a lot. Signing these players would be a dominant strategy.

Lens 46:   The Lens of Economy

l  How can my players earn money? Should there be other ways?

The players can earn money by selling their players in their squad. They can also win competitions in order to win money.

l  What can my players buy? Why?

Players can make signings from other teams. It gives them a chance to strengthen their team.

l  Is money too easy to get? Too hard? How can I change this?

Money is hard to get. As a manager, the players are usually unwilling to sell their best players so they usually won’t be able to get good money from fringe players. Increasing the players’ match day income would increase the money they would get, however as other teams would also have their match day income increased, this would inflate the transfer fees and it is not easy to increase your own purchasing power.

l  Are choices about earning and spending meaningful ones?

It is meaningful ones as your results will depend on the kind of players you have.

Is a universal currency a good idea in my game, or should there be specialized currencies?

Universal currency is used as in the real world.