Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition (DAI) is the latest installment of Bioware’s Dragon Age Series. Like its predecessors, DAI is a 3D role-playing game (RPG) set in the fictional world of Thedas. The player takes on the role of the story’s protagonist who eventually comes to lead an organization called the Inquisition which aims to restore order to the world. The Inquisition is made up of various well-written characters, with 9 of them being potential party members whose skillsets and gear are also customisable like the protagonist’s. Select expanses of Thedas are also open for the player to explore, fight foes and complete quests within, with more unlocked as the player progresses. Combat is mostly action-orientated, with the player controlling a party member while the others will behave according to their individual AI.

daI-cover

Protagonist of the Story: The (soon-to-be) Inquisitor

Game’s Homepage: http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/home

Gameplay Video, by ChristopherOdd and also used in this analysis:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjKh8QzYtaQ
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFhWN2CnRM

In this assignment, I chose to analyse in particular the very first stage of the game between my playthrough and that of ChristopherOdd’s “Let’s Play” Video. Being a game being focused around a main plot, I had found that the experience could vary greatly when played at different points of the plot, especially the emotional responses to events of the story and difficulty differences. Thus, fixing the part of the game to analyse would be easier to compare and contrast directly.

Elemental Tetrad

Story

I find Story being the most prominent out of the four elements, especially with the very detailed lore of the world. The game began with the showing of cutscenes of the protagonist’s plight. From the first few conversations the protagonist has with the character Cassandra, the ongoing chaotic situation of having a giant green hole in the sky was set up before me. Though, few things that happen in this first stage elicit much response from me as a returning player. For ChristopherOdd, being the first time he is playing the game, was actually surprised at various points of the stage such as the bridge collapsing when he tries to cross it. The dialogue system also allows him to learn more about the situation and characters around the protagonist to grasp a better understanding of the story.

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Prominent Characters of the Inquisition

Aesthetics

It’s unfortunate that with my low-end PC, I am not able to fully enjoy the 3D environments. Nonetheless, the great voice acting is able to bring forward the personalities of each character. Music tries to play up the ongoing doom-on-the-world tension. From the sound effects, I could even tell whether or not my attacks are connecting with the moving targets.

Aesthetics also aid ChristopherOdd in picking up the mechanics. For example, from the metallic bars above Cassandra’s health bar, he deduced that she has some sort of armour on her in which he was quite correct even though he did not know that they represent her “guard”, a commodity which takes damage in place of her health.

Mechanics

Combat is DAI is mostly action-based. Mechanics are also flexible enough to allow us to take different approaches to combat. For example, in the same fight, I did take out the weaker ranged enemies first before focusing on the enemies with more health while ChristopherOdd usually tries to take out the closet target.

I’ve found that Mechanics meets Story particularly in Rift fights. These green tears in the Veil could be disrupted by the protagonist in combat to deal damage to surrounding demons, something unique to the main character since he had woken to find a strange green mark on his hand at the start of the game.

Technology

Though not very apparent, it appears to be the glue in DAI’s well-meshed Elemental Tetrad. My favourite feature of the game is the characters. Aesthetics, of both animation and voice acting, and writing are meshed through technology to make them feel very much like real people. It’s also Technology that allows us to move our character freely and interact with objects, choose dialogue option and make visuals and sound play through our screen and speakers.

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Screenshot from the First Stage (Credits: http://www.allgamesbeta.com)

Lens of Essential Experience

Although I was replaying the tutorial stage, I was still able to have an exciting on-the-edge boss fight by playing in the most difficult “Nightmare” mode. The increased difficulty challenges me to employ better tactics in fight as I could easily run into crisis points in combat and possibly lose. As this was not my first playthrough, I was rather impatient when cutscenes are going on as they are not new to me. Nonetheless, I still find myself being amused by the back and forth responses between characters, especially the witty remarks of Varric Thetras. The AI, models and voice contribute to life-likeness of the characters, reinforcing the illusion of my protagonist fighting alongside other people, and not mere pawns I can control as the player.

This tutorial stage seems to be able to guide ChristopherOdd smoothly into the controls and rules of the game through presenting popup explanations of combat skills, items and control as he encounters them. The game also makes an effort to instruct him through the party members, such as telling the protagonist to “use the mark”, which cues him to interact with the Rift using his character. Such efforts allow instructions to be presented in a “natural” way in the game’s setting and interrupts immersion less than the instructional popups.

Lens of Curiosity

While playing the game, I tend to look around a lot while hitting the search button repeatedly. This is likely because of the question of “Is there loot nearby?” in my head. The more I find, the more I am convinced that there are more lying around somewhere, especially when there seem to be the trend of loot waiting to be found in dead ends and corners off the main path of the stage. Similarly ChristopherOdd tends to search the area for loot thoroughly, probably due to the same question.

As a first time player, ChristopherOdd also appears to be curious and wanting to know more about where the stage and story is headed. The game begins with the cataclysmic event of a Breach being opened in the sky but there are many unanswered questions of how the protagonist ends up with the special ability to influence Rifts. The voices heard at the Temple of Sacred Ashes and the vision seen later also makes him wonder “What is going on?” probably not just about the vision itself, but also to the story behind the explosion that created the Breach.

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Pride Demon Stage Boss (Credits: http://guides.gamepressure.com/)

Lens of Endogenous Value

Both of us collect as much loot as possible from this stage probably for similar reasons. We know gold would allow us to buy things we would want in future parts of the game, a parallel to real life money. Equipment we find that are better than what we are currently wearing would help us towards combating foes we meet. Combat is a major part of the game and if we are to complete it, we would have to win against enemies we come across. This give importance to developing our characters’ combat prowess and thus, attaching importance to good equipment. Similarily, we learn from this first stage that levels give ability points which are exchanged for usable skills and passive boosts for combat. Although experience points in this first stage are limited, we come to know that they are important as they lead to levels and thus, ability points.

Lens of Problem Solving

At the beginning of the stage, we are given the quest to “Get to the Rift with Cassandra”. This is the first of many problems disguised as a task and quest. Getting to the Rift means needing to overcome the foes encountered on the path to the Rift. Similar quests and problems make or guide us to the end of the stage to the Pride Demon boss.

A different problem was presented when fighting the boss. We would have to disrupt the nearby Rift in order to remove the shield on the Pride Demon boss that makes it immune to attacks. This slight change in the rules and the increased power of the opponent makes the problem of defeating the boss more challenging, creating the experience of the climaxing fight of the stage.

Conclusion

The experience of the first playthrough of this first stage of the game could be quite different from that of subsequent replay. Although my curiosity for what-happens-next is dimmer than ChristopherOdd’s, the wanting of valuable loot and the curiosity of what I can find had me exploring the stage as thorough as I could. Although I was already versed in the game and impatiently skipping through tutorials, I could still have fun through the increased difficulty as it challenges me to apply what I already know to overcome the problems. On top of it all, characters that I have grown fond of during my previous experiences of the game were present, no less well-presented and amusing as I remember them from previous plays.

HearthStone Game Analysis

hearthstone

Offical Website              Gameplay demo

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a free-to-play collectible card games created by Blizzard Entertainment which is played by two players.

Elemental Tetrad

  • The mechanics of the game is to reduce the health points to zero with decks of 30 cards which consist of minions, spells and weapons. The minion can attack each other or the enemy’s hero. The spells cards have diversity effects, from damaging and drawing extra cards to spawn new minions. Once your hero’s health falls to zero, the game is over
  • Hearthstone has impressive graphics.

This is a Legendary card, Sylvanas

  • One of the features of Hearthstone that I was impressed by is their Tutorial Mode.

tutorial

  • It wasn’t only to introduce player to cards and mechanics of the game, it was giving the sense of progression from fighting lesser bosses all the way to Illidan. It gave me a sense of closure, before moving on to the next stage of the game.
  • Hearthstone is available for Windows, Macintosh and iPad.I find that the four elements (Mechanics, Aesthetic, Story, and Technology) are working well together , it makes the game pleasant, interesting and challenging for the players.

The 5 lenses

1. The Lens of Fun

The duration of the game ranging from just a few minute or more than 20 minutes. This allow each player to play against variety of enemies. Thus, it doesn’t make a player reach a state of boredom.

There are 9 playeable heroes which user have to strategise differently and we have to choose 30 out of more than 400 cards to bring in the battlefield, this can be quiet rewarding. The competitiveness in Ranked Mode makes the game engaging to the players.

Having a new class could make the game attractive to the players. As there will be new decks of cards to collect and new abilities. Currently, Hearthstone has it’s first game’s expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes. Since then, it has increases my interest in playing the game.

2. The Lens of Surprise

During the battle, the player does not know what card will be drawn form their deck of 30 cards. The card will determine the player’s strategy.The cards in our enemy’s hand is unknown to us. While playing the game, you tend to predict what cards does your opponent has.

3. The Lens of Motivation

Players are motivated to obtain higher rank in the ranked mode. Starting from rank 20, each player needs to obtain 3 stars and they will lose one star everytime they lose a battle. The competitiveness of the game drives the player to play more.

Losing the battle sometimes demotivating the players, especially form rank 20 onwards. You can win 3 times in a row, at the same time you can lose 3 times in a row. Thus, it gave a sense of zero accomplishment to the players.

4. The Lens of Chance

There is randomness in the type of enemy you will play against. A card that will be drawn to your hand during the battle is randomise by the AI. The outcome of the game determine by the correct or incorrect order of the cards.There are different daily quest that player have to fulfil in order to obtain a gold reward.

The long –term success doesn’t fully depends on the chance. The extended knowledge of the game and one’s intelligence are the greatest factor of success.

5. The Lens of Balance

The player will be matched against the opponents who has similar skill/decks and the number of wins.This provides a good balance in the game as it prevents player to battle with a player that has better cards and abilities.Every time the player buy 1 new card pack, there is no factor affecting what cards can a player obtain. Thus, there is fairness in the game itself.

Friend’s Analysis

1.The Lens of Fun

There is a great sense of satisfaction every winning round. The competitiveness increases as there is a sense of accomplishment playing at the ranked mode.Playing against different type of players makes the player feel adventurous as the player needs to adjust their game strategy accordingly.

2.The Lens of Surprise

During the battle, the player constantly thinking of the cards that he/she will obtain. It has always been a surprise for the player every time the new card is drawn to their hand.

3.The Lens of Motivation

The number of wins in the battle encourages the player to keep on playing. The more wins you obtain, the faster you can obtain a higher rank.

4.The Lens of Chance

The cards drawn to their hand is always unpredictable. Thus, player tends to be constantly adopting different strategies to deal more damages.The opponent’s deck affected the approach that a player has.

5.The Lens of Control

The interface is simplistic. Player knows how to put their cards into the board. It is easy to navigate and it is easy to master all the controls in the game.The outcome of the game is determine by the type of cards each player put on the board. It gave sense of control of the game.

Overall game design of hearthstone is simple and easy to grasp for the first time player.

Compare and Contrast

1.The Lens of Fun

Both player find that the satisfaction of winning the battle initiated the fun in the game. The more you win the battle, the more you want to play.

Additionally, by playing multiple games with different types of opponents each time stimulate the player to find more opponents to defeat. This game requires a right strategy with the right order of cards.

2.The Lens of Surprise

As the cards are drawn randomly, both players have to srategise their battle on the spot, with respect to the cards on their hand

3.The Lens of Motivation

The competition between both players and the goal to achieve legendary ranks or even to get a higher rank for every season has make the game attractive for both players.

4.The Lens of Chance

It is random thus it is difficult to predict what is the next movement. Both player experience similar feeling, excitement when the right card is drawn and frustration otherwise.

5.The Lens of Balance Vs Control

The randomness in the game makes the game fair to everyone. The new card pack bought by every player differ in the rarity of the cards.

Additionally, the first time player find it easy to play the game as there is a concise tutorial that have been provided. In this case, the elemental tetrad of the game is well balance and it has increase the pleasure and excitement of the game.

In conclusion, despite playing the same game, different player experience different feeling and emotions. It is interesting to see how a game can affect individual differently.

Royal Revolt 2

Royal Revolt 2 is a 3D strategy MMO game for smartphones, tablets and Windows 8 PCs. It brought a breath of fresh air to the classic tower defence games, where now players can assume the role of both defender and attacker. Besides building up their own kingdom and setting up defences to prevent attacks, players now can also raid other player’s castle by sending in their own troops. All these can be done within a few taps and thus making the game easy to learn and play.

Game website: http://royalrevolt.com/

Gameplay Video:

MY EXPERIENCE

Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

I felt that the technology and mechanics go very well together. Game is easy to access and it is available on our smartphones. I will also play the game even while travelling due to the easy mechanics of the games. I also enjoyed the aesthetics wise of the game as it was cute and allowed me to enjoy the impressive graphic while playing.

The storyline however felt a bit redundant. If a stronger and/or linear storyline could be used, I believe I will be able to connect to the game even more. What kept me playing is the interesting gameplay and the MMO aspect of the game.

Lens #39: The Lens of Time

The game is designed such that time is needed for building of structures and refilling “food” that is needed for raiding other players. This can be frustrating as I may want to play for a longer period but the game disallow me to.

Hence, I usually play the game only for a few minutes, and only get back when I have free time or nothing to do. Sometimes due to the long waiting, I did ever consider if I should quit.

10 minutes is needed for an upgrade

 

Lens #86: The Lens of Community

The game has a system of rankings, guilds and player raids. This sense of playing with and competing against other real players has somehow increased my competitive spirit, spurring me on to level up and raiding players to increase my ranks or just to get revenge.

However, I felt it still lacks a sense realism of community since the game is not real-time.

Lens #31: The Lens of Challenge

The game system usually paired me up with a stronger player when raiding. It gave me a sense of satisfaction when I am able to beat the stronger players, partly due to my own skills and decisions during gameplay.

However, many times the player will be too strong and I will spend “golds” to be matched with a lower level opponents.

Lens #30: The Lens of Fairness

Royal Revolt 2 is a typical freemium game – a pay-to-win gaming system. It definitely get on my nerves, when players of the same level as me have much better skills and equipment just because they are willing to spend real money on the game.

Luckily there are still players like me who does not spend money, which kept the game partially fair. I also pride myself, if I were to be able to beat those pay-to-win players who are much stronger than me.

Buying Gems with real money

FRIEND’S EXPERIENCE

Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

My friend found that the technology and mechanics go very well together too. Likewise, at every free time, he will be using his phone to play the game. He even uses his tablet for a bigger and better screen. He sometimes played with the music on, in order to appreciate the game’s aesthetics fully.

As for the storyline, my friend too did not take much notice of it and he will skip all the dialogues of the characters.

Lens #39: The Lens of Time

Almost every free moments he had, he will be checking the game. He would even plan the gameplay to fit into his schedule, to allow the game always be ready for play whenever he is free. This let him not to feel a sense of disruption when the game disallowed to continue playing.

Lens #86: The Lens of Community

He is the leader of his own guild, and with his online friends, they will work and communicate with each other in order to achieve and level up their guild. He actually felt a sense of belonging with the community as they will chat frequently to discuss the game play and strategies.

Lens #31: The Lens of Challenge

He does felt the game is challenging too due to the fact stronger players were always been pair to him during raids. Sometimes he will challenge those stronger players just to test his skill. But similar to me, he will still tend to seek for an easier enemy yet with enough challenge.

Lens #30: The Lens of Fairness

Since my friend spends much more time than me on the game, even if his level may be same as mine, his skills and equipment are much better. This actually kept him near the level of those who pay for the game.

Unlike me, he rarely complains about the fairness of the game. However, sometimes he will still be willingly to spend a bit of money just to keep him on par with the other players and to keep his rankings up.

ANALYSIS

Mobility of device and ease of gameplay

I realized that the most effective way to get a person to be hooked on a game knowingly or unknowingly is the combination of device’s mobility and gameplay’s simple mechanics. A game with an easy gameplay will allow people to play without much thinking or just help them pass time. With the mobility of its gaming device – smartphone, which people carries around most of the time, it further entice the person to play the game almost anywhere and anytime. Just like how my friend and I were, while travelling or waiting for a bus, we will conveniently take out our phone and start playing game. It slowly becomes a habit, for us to play some games on our phone when we are free.

The “waiting” game

Royal Revolt 2 is a game that requires time. I found out that this kind of games tend to led to 3 scenarios.

  1. Some gamers, for example myself, may get frustrated of the waiting. This kind of people may only play the game for a few minute and only get back to the game after a long while. They tend not to check the game often. After a while this may lead to their disinterest and stop playing the game.
  2. Gamers may be hooked by the game and set notification to notify themselves whenever the game is ready. This causes them to spend almost all their free time on the game.
  3. They are the players who hate waiting and are willing to spend. They will spend real money just to decrease the waiting time so they can continue playing as long as they want. This is where the revenue of the game is mainly from.

Through this, we can see that this is one of the way the game is designed to keep the players playing, though it does have its downside to it. However, the popularity of this game showed that the upsides out ruled the downsides.

The (un)importance of storyline

I found that storyline may not be the most important thing in a play-on-the-go game. Many people who play Royal Revolt 2 just want to pass time quickly. Also they may just want to play some game that does not require much thinking. Most of the time they just want to be entertained through fast-paced action gameplay and dynamic graphics. This may be reason why Royal Revolt 2 does not have a complicate story. It only gave the players a simple background story and everything else depends heavily on the main gameplay itself. People who continued playing is not because they are interested in story but because of the well-designed gameplay.

Players prefer games with dynamic graphic

 

Conclusion

Royal Revolt 2 is a good example of a game breaking out of the mainstream gameplay, by injecting a new perspective to the traditional tower defence game. This further proves that storyline may not be the most important aspect but the game design and ideas are the one that kept the players playing.

Binding of Isaac

Binding of Isaac (BOI)

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The Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swh54ibRSDo&index=1&list=PLA958826F60F5B8B7

The Binding of Isaac is a top-down 2D roguelike in which the player assumes the identity of the protagonist, Isaac, and attempts to escape from his murderous mother by going deeper down each floor of the basement. Progressing further down each floor requires the player to kill all the enemies encountered and defeat the boss guarding the entrance to the next floor. Along the way, power-ups can be obtained to strengthen or weaken Isaac. The game ends when the final boss is killed, prompting the ending scene to start showing. New content is unlocked on completion of certain achievements, with some of the content being new power-ups, new floors or new ending scenes.

 

My Experience

Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics: Enemies and bosses are characteristically different from each other. Power-ups obtained are stackable with each other. Permadeath keeps the game tense and engaging. Floors being randomly procedurally generated makes each playthrough different and gives me a chance to discover interesting and sometimes hilarious interactions between enemies and power-ups.

Story: Controversial story that touches on dark themes, e.g. religion and child abuse. Each ending is ambiguous and open for interpretation. It piques my interest to keep playing to unlock more endings to further understand the story.

Technology: The game is made in Flash, which while is good enough for the scale of this game, introduced slight lags when activity on the screen got too hectic. This caused slight irritation when the lag occurred, but not enough to spoil the experience.

Aesthetics: Cute artwork but disturbing enemy sprites.

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Cute stuff

 

Overall, the aesthetics and story complemented each other well. The cute artwork was deceptively contrary of the dark themes, creating a unique experience. The mechanics kept things fresh for players that want to keep replaying to know more about the story. Its biggest flaw was technology, which the developer agreed and eventually changed in its sequel: Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Lens #27: The Lens of Skill

boidodge

Bullet Hell

 

BOI in its essence is a game of skill. Besides testing my reaction speed, it challenges me to make decisions on either rushing each floor or to spend a longer time on each floor farming to possibly become stronger. Each subsequent floor becomes harder, requiring the player to farm floors to become stronger. However, spending a longer time on each floor means possibly taking more damage, making the later game harder.

Lens #20: The Lens of Judgement

The game judges me on whether I have good reflexes and can make smart decisions, and the achievements unlocked and amount of progress made in each playthrough affirms my skill.

Lens #49: The Lens of Visible Progress

boicompare

From this to THIS

 

BOI shows my progress during a playthrough. Power-ups all make visible changes to the character and the projectiles. Each new power-up that is picked up add to the change in aesthetics of the character sprite, showing how powerful the character has become. The game also shows the progress of the player’s career in playing BOI. It shows the tally of total number unlockables and how many are left, even changing the start menu to reflect the progress that I have made in unlocking all content of the game. This appeals to the completionist in me, urging me to keep replaying to unlock everything.

Lens #53: The Lens of Control

The control scheme is simple; WASD for movement and arrow keys to shoot projectiles. Use SHIFT to set a bomb, Q to use an item, and SPACEBAR for the spacebar item. Controls respond fluidly to the command of the player. Enemies are fair in that their own AI and movesets do not change. Whenever I lose in the game, the irritation I feel is always with myself as the outcome is due to my control.

 

My Friend’s Experience

I got a friend who was new to BOI and got him to play a few games for me.

Lens #2: The Lens of Surprise

boiinstruct

That’s all you get

 

At the start of the game, players are simply thrown into the game with four instructions and nothing else. Everything from then on is a surprise for new players. How enemies and bosses move and the effects of power-ups. Nothing is explained at the start and there is enjoyment in exploring new things.

Lens #29: The Lens of Chance

boirng

What RNG can do for you

 

Due the random nature of the game, sometimes the power-ups received are quite underpowered. The friend who played the game felt that the game is too “RNG-reliant”. The power-ups received dictated his progress in the game, and thus became too random.

Lens #69: The Lens of the Weirdest Thing

The setting of the game is weird. Weird monsters appear in the basement and the further down players go, the more detached from reality the game becomes. The ending revealed on completion of the game do not explain anything directly and leaves them puzzled and interested to make sense of the whole story.

Lens #10: The Lens of Resonance

The dark theme and issues dealt with in the game resounds with players. Players can empathise with the main character, and it forces players to think about these controversial issues that are seldom covered. It creates depth for the game and offers additional meaning for players playing it. It creates for a more satisfying playthrough.

 

Analysis

Comparing the two sets of notes, we both agree that BOI is a satisfying game where the good controls and level design provide an interesting and enjoyable experience. The weirdness of the story and dark theme explored gave the game additional value, making the experience of the players more meaningful.

Using the Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad, we can see that of the 4 elements, none is more important than the rest. Developing the game in Flash has resulted in a somewhat subpar game, where if better technology is used, a better experience for users can be achieved.

However, from the two experiences, we see that there is a conflict of Skill versus Chance. I thought the game had more emphasis on skill while my friend thought that the emphasis on chance. This brings about the difficulty of how to balance skill and chance, which corresponds to Lens #34: The Lens of Skill vs. Chance. In my opinion though, while BOI’s element of chance with power-ups does indeed contribute to ease of a playthrough, an immensely skilled player can still complete the game without strong power-ups. The balance of skill and chance in this game is still acceptable.

From all the lenses we have identified and judging the game based on them, I would argue that BOI has a good game design. The game is designed to be hard for starting players, and through the gradual improvement of the player, the game judges them and reaffirms their steady improvement. The element of chance and randomness of the game allows replayability, which helped to maintain the interest in the story.

 

 

 

 

Battle Camp

Short Description

Battle Camp is a mobile-based game that is very much like Pokemon. The player starts off with 5 basic monsters in his team and progresses to each new town by defeating a hall boss (much like Gym Leaders). Every new town gives access to better monsters, which improve your team’s Power Rating (PR).

 

The rarity tier of monsters goes from Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super, Ultra, Epic and Legendary Monsters. Players can only obtain up to Super monsters by completing the main questline. For Ultra monsters and above, players can either compete in Events, or spend money to spin “Ultimate Grabs”, which has a random chance of giving Ultra and Epic monsters.

 

Each monster has its own zodiac sign, which means there are 12 versions of each particular monster. Another way for players to improve their PR other than obtaining monsters of better rarity is to match zodiacs e.g. using all “Scorpio” monsters in the team. This will activate powerful passive bonuses, which may include additional Attack stats, or HP stats.

 

An important aspect of the game is that players cannot sit down and complete a ‘playthrough’ in a single session. It is a passive game, where Energy is used to battle monsters, PvP other players, participate in Events and fight bosses. Every 10 minutes, 1 energy regenerates, and the total energy cap at any one time is 5. This means that players can only play for a short while, depending on how fast they use up their energy. After depleting their energy, they must either wait 50 minutes or use In-App-Purchases (IAP) to buy extra energy.

 

My experience

  1. Lens of Time

A lot of times, I just play the game passively. After using up my energy, I just close the game and go and do other stuff. Even though the game notifies me when my energy is refilled, sometimes I forget and let them go to “waste”, since there is a cap imposed. This is directly related to the Lens of Time. In this case, for me I think it is just a different style of gameplay, and I am neither frustrated that the game is too short, nor bored because it is too long.

 

  1. Lens of Endogenous Value

When I ran out of energy, I went to the ‘Management’ Tab and looked at my monsters and inventory. This is relatable to the Lens of Endogenous Value, which asks the question of ‘what is valuable to the players in the game?’ For me, it is obvious that my team of monsters and those in my inventory have endogenous value because it is essentially what the game is all about to me – improving my team and getting better monsters.

 

  1. Lens of Motivation

I also find myself exploring the ‘Social’ Tab and looking at my friends’ monsters, comparing his team to mine. I also PvP occasionally when I feel like it. I think the Lens of Motivation comes into play here as I feel motivated to play and upgrade my team so that I can beat other players.

 

  1. Lens of Spectation

An interesting thing that happened when I was doing this assignment was that another friend (not the one who I was planning to do this assignment with) became interested in watching me play. This may be explained by the Lens of Spectation, and I think the game is interesting to watch because animations are everywhere and people are generally attracted to moving things.

 

  1. Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics – This game is heavily invested in aesthetics, as it is filled with nice animations and good looking monsters. On one hand, the common and lower-leveled monsters tend to look small and cutesy, while evolved monsters grow in size and give off intimidating looks, so this actually allows the game to cover a broad theme of art.

Technology – For technology, I do not know what game engine is powering the game, but I feel that it can be improved. When playing on my Android device, I always experience lag. On the other hand, my friend has no lag problems on iOS.

Mechanics – The mechanics of the game mainly revolves around matching gems, and is not new. Unlike Candy Crush, the player can move a gem anywhere on the map, displacing gems along the path taken and making multiple combos this way (see gameplay video).

Story – There is hardly any storyline progression in this game.

 

My friend’s experience

  1. Lens of Time

Unlike me, my friend was glued to his phone screen. It was clear that the 50 minutes recharge time for energy is too slow for him, and he was frustrated that he could not play longer.

 

  1. Lens of Endogenous Value

Similar to me, while my friend was waiting for energy, he would look through his current team of monsters and inventory.

 

  1. Lens of Chance

During his playtime, he actually used his free “Ultimate Grabs”. Although initially a paid feature, sometimes the game gives out free grabs as rewards to players in event. The chance of getting a good monster from spins is totally random. One of the questions asked by the Lens of Chance is: Does the randomness give the players positive feelings of excitement and challenge, or negative feelings of hopelessness and lack of control? Actually, it depends. If the player receives a very rare monster (e.g. Epic-tier monster) from the spin, then they would obviously be very excited. However, the chances of this happening is very low, and most players experience negative feelings when spinning such “Ultimate Grabs”. A lot of them have even advised other players to spend their money on other items instead, such as buying energy. In fact, some have even came up with their own term for “Ultimate Grab” – they ridiculed it as the “Rare Grab”, which means you only get Rare-tier monsters from it. Unfortunate for my friend, he did in fact get a rare-tier monster from his grab.

  1. Lens of Reward, Lens of Triangularity

My friend participates in events actively. Relating this to the Lens of Reward, events can be counted as the main source of rewards for players, as they usually reward monsters with much better stats compared to those that can be obtained through quests. Players are always excited to receive these better monsters as rewards. At the same time, events can also be related to the Lens of Triangularity. Event rewards are separated into Tiers and only the top 5000 players receive good event rewards. Some players may choose to spend lesser energy, and are satisfied with a lower tier. However, they may also choose to spend more energy to advance to the next higher tier. This is obviously very risky as players are competing against players and if everyone were to spend more energy, then nobody would advance at all.

 

General

  1. Lens of Community

There are 12 versions of each monster in the game. When getting new monsters (spinning grabs or event rewards), players do not necessarily get the new monster in their zodiac. Hence, trading among players is a very important aspect of the game as it allows players to match their zodiacs and receive bonuses.

 

Analysis

A learning point from the analysis of Lenses of Elemental Tetrad would be that a game does not need to have all elements; in fact if even one of the elements is done well (e.g. Aesthetics), players would be drawn into the game all the same.

 

Different people can have different reactions and experiences to the same game. This is evident in the Lens of Time analysis between me and my friend. Therefore, it is not only important to use the different Lenses blindly as a guide to game design, but to also consider that different people may react differently to the same Lens. A learning point from this may be that players are generally very fussy, and one man’s meat may be another man’s poison.

 

Despite the differences, some parts of our experience do share common reactions, such as the part on Endogenous Value. Although this may sound contradictory to the previous point about players reacting differently, I think this further reinforces the learning point that players are hard to please.

 

From both our experiences, I have been able to use multiple different Lenses to analyze the game. As a learning point, it is important to note that while using the different Lenses to design a game, it is better to stick to the rule of “more is better”. Some features may appeal to certain audiences e.g. passive playing and make others frustrated, but as long as the game has other features that addresses the needs of such players, then it would still be okay even if you have to make the player wait a while for some energy.

 


Website
: http://pennypop.com/

Gameplay videos:

(Battle System) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cR5Ibg0ozo

(Ultimate Grabs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIkiu0yk4aQ

Game Analysis: Transistor

4

Game: Transistor
Developer: Supergiant Games
Genre: Indie (Independent), Action, Role-Playing, Science fiction

Summary about the game
Red, a famous singer in the virtual city of Cloudbank, is attacked by the Process, a robotic force controlled a group who calls themselves Camerata. After being mysteriously teleported across Cloudbank thus surviving a clash, Red comes into possession of the mysterious Transistor, a sword-like weapon she was to be assassinated with. It was found buried into the chest of an unknown man who also teleported with her and seemingly close to Red. Though slumped over and dead, his conscious and voice seem to have been absorbed into the Transistor, along with Red’s voice. The Camerata continues to track down Red and the Transistor with the Process, wanting the weapon for unknown cause while turning Cloudbank into a blank state. It’s up to Red and her talking Transistor to find out the reason of her own assassination and hopefully reverse the “formatting” of Cloudbank.

Developer and game website: https://www.supergiantgames.com/games/transistor/

— What I’ve experienced and Felt from The Game

Elemental Tetrads: Aesthetics
The most obvious aesthetics of the game, for me, are its visual and sound aspects.

Visual: the game portrays probably one of the most colorful city I have seen. It’s not as dull as a typical white concrete jungle, beautiful yet uncluttered. It gives the player an impression like the game world is run on virtual, computer science principles, just like atoms and quarks in our world, yet the portrayal is not excessive to cater non-geeky gamers. Another examples are the naming conventions of transistor functions (typically called “abilities” in video games. Many computing motifs are used in this game) such as crash(). Brackets are appended, which programmers will immediately relate themselves to. Enemies’ names are also appended with version number such as Younglady 3.0.

1Fig.1: The scene just after executing turn(). The names of enemies are appended with version number that goes up as you progress the game.

Sound: the soundtrack is one of the main reasons fans love the game. Mostly electronics by genre, although not as strong as expected. Felt like they are suitable for playing in coffee shops. The player can make Red hum with the background music at any time outside the battle. And inside the battle, the music is not strong as those we hear on triple A military shooting games, but it is enough to portray Red’s prowess. Music is filtered to be muffled while in turn(), a time-freezing battle planning mode.

Elemental Tetrads: Story
I consider the story to be the most important pillar of the game’s success as it greatly shapes the settings, motifs and visual aesthetics (Lens 78: Story). Supergiant Games has done beautifully in this regards. The story gave me a sense of curiosity, then twist, and eventually, bittersweet (Lens 1: Emotion). But there are more than just main story in the game. Each Transistor functions are also “traces” (like our “soul”) of an individual, therefore they also have biographies of individuals, including Red. Ordering a flatbread from Junction Jan’s on OVC terminal will later enable Red to go home a while and indulge as a side story narration of her time with the unknown lover absorbed into the Transistor.

2Fig.2: Red’s Biography in crash() function, while choosing Transistor’s attack function.

Elemental Tetrads: Mechanics
The two main gaming mechanics in the game are battle planning and managing transistor functions, which are suffice to finish the game and fulfill the experience (Lens 2: Essential Experience).

Battle planning: A battle can be fought with either a typical real-time manner or with a time-freezing planning mode named “turn()”. In turn(), everything is stopped except Red. A bar at the top measuring the total amount of Transistor functions that can be used and walking distance is displayed.

Transistor functions management: a function can be implemented as active (main ability. A Transistor can hold up to 4 of them), upgrade (enhances active function) or passive (enhances Red’s perk). There are a total of 16 distinct functions available that can make up to thousands of combinations.

One clever example is using switch(), a allegiance changing ability, as an active, or as an upgrade. Using switch() as an active function will change an enemy’s allegiance with a directional attack, and it takes up 1/3 of the turn() bar. However, if used as an upgrade of jaunt(), a short teleportation ability, Red can use jaunt() to teleport while triggering switch() by changing allegiance of enemies at the teleportation destination, at the cost of a jaunt(), which is 1/10 of the bar. In other words, two functions at a cheaper cost, albeit a shorter switch() duration. (Lens 49: Elegance)

3Fig.3: Configuring functions for transistors.

Elemental Tetrads: Technology
The game is available on PlayStation and Steam platform. In other words, keyboard, mouse or a PlayStation controller is needed to play the game. Generally, that means anyone with a decent computer with at least a dedicated graphics card can play this game smoothly.

This game is developed on MonoGame Engine, mainly based on Microsoft XNA API. Supports iOS, Linux, all of Microsoft’s platform, Android and PlayStation Mobile.

My gameplay video: http://youtu.be/Op03rI1b4FA

— What My Friend experienced and Felt from The Game
(Credits to my friend who is in fact the one introducing me to the game, Zee.)

Elemental Tetrads: Aesthetics
As a visual person, Zee is especially attracted to and likes the visual aesthetic of the game. She loves how simple the user interface was, and as an art design hobbyist herself, she likes how the artwork of the game is done. They look professional enough. She can also relate to the slightly geeky nature of the games’ settings and motifs.

As for the soundtracks, she likes the ambience. She thinks that there aren’t many battles in many other games with such not so action-oriented vibes.

Elemental Tetrads: Story
Curiousity (Lens 1: Emotion) is what driving her in the story. She is curious about the identity of the unknown man absorbed into the Transistor as a breach() function, the entire plot as of why Red is being hunted and the importance of the Transistor itself.

She finds the story beautiful when it comes to the bond between Red and her unknown man. The narration is mainly coming from the unknown man, who is more talkative and caring as Red can no longer speak for nearly the entire game, and certain parts from the members of Camerata. She finds such method of narration interesting.

Elemental Tetrads: Mechanics
She feels that the gameplay mechanics and the controls to the game are simple. She commented that she didn’t feel overwhelmed by the learning curve of the game.

One thing she likes about turn() is that the irrelevant background will be dimmed. What are highlighted in the game are Red herself, the combat area and border, the enemies and the obstacles for protection.

The levels are easy to navigate and mostly linear. There are no maps interface yet she didn’t feel lost.

Elemental Tetrads: Technologies
She is very used to playing the game entirely with the mouse. I usually use WASD keys on the keyboard to move Red while the attacks go to the mouse.

More on Lens 1: Emotion
She is especially annoyed with the teleportation and spawning of very weak doppelgangers of a particular enemy “process”, the Younglady. It’s a total wild guess to try to hit it again after it teleports using turn() unless several jaunt() (teleportation) and area-of-effect functions are pre-planned to get a lucky damage. That was what I taught her when she asked on the best way to deal with it quickly.

The happiest moment for her is always when Red levels up and acquires a new Transistor function.

— What I’ve learnt from Our Experiences

Achieve complex fun with simple ideas
It doesn’t take much of Transistor functions to make awesome combinations to drain enemies quicker. Also, it doesn’t take a complex learning curve to advance the entire storyline, given that this is mainly about Red’s journey to the truth. If this game had been made to be as complex as ARMA, a military simulation shooter game, it would’ve been unpopular.

Show what is relevant at a point of time to make gaming easy
Zee has pointed out on thing that I have totally missed, the dimming of environment in turn(). By dimming the environment, slow thinking gamers will be able to focus on relevant information at hand.

Make inside jokes more approachable for wider range of gamers, or feel like nothing at all
Given that the game has sold over 600k copies and has received 100 industry accolades within months, it is highly possible that this game has managed to attract non-computing people as well. We do not need to understand the meaning of the bracket behind each Transistor functions, and the version number is something that computer users will relate themselves to even if not all of them are software developers. A small spark of details is enough to give players rough generalizations of the settings.

If possible, make a game cater to wider gamer types and skills
The controls and learning curve were able to cater to Zee, who is mostly a fan of casual genre and spends more time on Pokemon on Nintendo DS, and me, who has lost count of how many games I’ve played since childhood. She was able to play the game with just a mouse, even though the game can be played with WASD keys.

Wargame: Red Dragon Analysis

Wargame: Red Dragon Analysis

Wargame: Red Dragon is a real-time strategy game by Eugen Systems, which focuses on potential military conflicts in the 1980s, featuring military units with details reproduced from actual sources.

The Game launch trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3az0LsKc0

Analysis After Playing:

The Elemental Tetrad

The game prides itself on historical accuracy, realistic physics and its IRISZOOM engine, which allows players to zoom in from a satellite view of the entire battlefield, down to ground level to observe individual unit combat. The in-game camera is able to pan, zoom and rotate with very high flexibility, which theoretically enables players to reproduce the gameplay footage in the trailer. The aesthetics and mechanics were extremely well-tied together. All units were given symbols that signified their general role, such as MANPADS, armour and the like. In fact, the player can choose to use NATO’s universal unit type symbols, or the generic RTS ones if they are unfamiliar with military symbols. The story only exists in the campaign, and players usually play skirmish modes or online against one another. The technology behind the AI is less impressive however. Setting the enemy to a higher difficulty does not make them smarter; it only lets them cheat by earning more resources and calling more units.

Lens of Pleasure

As I play Red Dragon, I control the military units of the major powers of the world, pitting against other powers of my own choosing. I can choose to view the battlefield in the typical fashion:

2015-01-25_00043

Or more unconventionally, the exact same scene close-up (see the F/A 18C Hornet firing missiles in the background!):

2015-01-25_00042

The technology to zoom in seamlessly is not groundbreaking in any sense, but its implementation was coupled with very beautiful graphics, which made it a pleasure to view the combat up close.

Lens of Economy

Every player in the game begins with a set number of points, with which military units can be purchased. Throughout the game, players earn points by maintaining control of key sectors in the map, which provide continuous revenue for the purchase of additional reinforcements. In order to keep things less complicated, the currency is universal, meaning that these points can purchase any kind of unit, as long there is enough of it.

Lens of Problem Solving

The game has an extremely steep learning curve, with over a thousand units to use across the various featured nations, with a lot of detail. For example, the infamous AH-64A Apache helicopter:

2015-01-25_00045

I noticed my playstyle tends to lean towards the use of heavy armor and infantry to take control of the map. I dislike sending small sorties against the enemy because of the potential for losses; instead I prefer to scout with inexpensive units and then push forward with overwhelming force.

Lens of Skill

As a direct follow-up from the previous lens, the complexity of the game can make it difficult to decide what units are useful in battle. However, when I managed to learn the usage of these units in battle, it was very satisfying. Furthermore, the game allows you to watch replays of your prior battles (as well as those of other people), so that mistakes can be spotted and corrected in future games.

Analysis After Watching a Friend Playing:

Lens of Pleasure

I noted he was pleasantly surprised that the units all were voiced according to their language and nationality, instead of using heavily-accented English for all units. However, he did comment that this made playing non-English nationalities harder as he was unable to decipher what his units were saying.

Lens of Economy

Being new to the game, but not to the genre, he played frugally, keeping an eye on the points he had. I noticed that he tended to purchase more expensive but powerful units. When asked, he said he was not fond of managing large numbers of weak units.

Lens of Problem Solving

He complained about the large number of choices for units, but after playing a while with the basic choices, he became more able. He chose to use aerial-based tactics such as using napalm bombers to overwhelm infantry entrenched in urban areas, and sending assault helicopters to harass enemy ground forces.

Lens of Skill

He commented that the game does not overly encourage what is known as micro-management; overall strategy is emphasized.

Combined Analysis:

It turns out that people derive different kinds of trivial pleasure from the same game. For example, my friend was impressed and liked the voice acting. In hindsight, I think that it was fairly well-done too. Furthermore, in real-time strategy games, every player has different ways of designing their strategies. I dislike scattering my forces piecemeal, but admit that is primarily due to my incompetence in managing many things at once. As an experienced player in other real-time strategy games, my friend was skilled in manipulating the aircraft and helicopters, and rarely lost any, despite them being unarmoured. In this sense, we solved the same problem in different ways.

Dota 2 Analysis [A0101324A] ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Description:

Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena video game. It is played in discrete matches involving two teams of five players, each of which occupies the opposite corner of the map. Each of the bases called the “Ancient”, which the opposite team must destroy to win the match. Each player controls a “Hero” character and focuses on leveling up, collecting gold, acquiring items and fighting against the other team to achieve victory.

Game website: http://blog.dota2.com/?l=english

34

Analysis of my gameplay:

1

 

Observing my friend playing:

2

What I have learnt from the process:

Lens of emotions and Elemental tetrad – story

My friend and I were going with the flow of the game i.e. following the team around. Perhaps we are not so aggressive in nature; hence there are similarities in the way we play.

I realised that the elemental tetrad – story can be created by the players themselves. The game designers create the elements of potential conflicts while the players will able to create the experience through those conflicts. It is a refreshing idea. Emotions are created based on how the players play the game. For instance, if it is a friendly match, the teammates would be forgiving and will purely enjoy the process, not the result. By allowing players to have the freedom to decide what they want to do with their heroes, it gives lots of variety of attack technique such as sneak attack or gang attack. This allows different game experiences every time they play.

Elemental tetrad – mechanics and Lens of skills

My friend is more skilful than me, however he is more defensive. One thing I notice is that the personality of the players plays a part in how the game wins. Somehow, the personality of my friend connects with the hero in the game, which might be the reason why he loves this hero so much. Also, the game finds and matches the team’s skill level so that it will not be unbalance. Once you know how to play a hero well, you will enjoy the game better and better. Sometimes you will find interesting techniques to kill using your items and skills. That makes you want to play more to try out.

Unification theme and Elemental tetrad – aesthetics

This game is more of heroes in 2 different teams fighting to defeat each other’s base which is the Ancient. The overall aesthetics match the strange creatures (heroes) and it emphasise on how surreal the game environment is. This gives off a sense of uniqueness or fantasy-like environment. I am more into the aesthetics so for instance every time I see a cute courier, I will be very tempted to buy. I love the music especially when into gang fights. The music that is played makes me more engrossed and makes the fights more epics. My friend on the other hand, is not really into the aesthetics. However, if he is wandering around the jungle, he will sometimes imitate after what the hero said.

Technology

My friend and I have experienced this latency of the network connection. Especially in team fights, the game screen will sometimes hang and the next time you know, your hero died. You do not even know what kills you. I hope that the game server will improve.

Lens of Endogenous Value

The game makes the struggle easy to understand, which is determined by your health, gold and your levels. Recently, it makes changes to the runes such that opponents will go to the runes to get gold. Even before the game “starts”, players will start to kill each other just to get it. I find that this is a good design as compared to the previous version as it allows the fun to begin even earlier. No more waiting till the creeps appeared.

 

Castle Crashers

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

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

Castle Crashers SS1

Analysis of Self

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

  1. Upon launching the game, I felt excited. The graphics (aesthetics) were to my liking –old school, cute cartoon characters, very colourful and medieval themed –and the music was also fast-beat and exciting, to make the player crave for action. The theme (lens 9: theme) was reinforced by the type of monsters, their costumes, the weapon choices (sword, axe, bow and arrow etc.), and the story (saving the princesses). Having a unification theme makes the game feel more complete, well-made and also prepares the player for the game.
  1. As the game started off easy, I was having fun and was eager for more. I kept wanting to travel rightwards because that was the way to progress (lens 2: fun & lens 5: endogenous value). Cut scenes at the start of the game and before boss fights add to the excitement and eagerness. Here are some other examples of lens 2, 3, 4 that add to the fun and plays on curiosity:
    1. Monsters that look dead and part of the background would spring up to attack us!
    2. Boss would hit us normally for most of the fight then suddenly pause to drink a potion which we were curious to find out its mysterious effects.
    3. At the end of the boss fight, players had to battle it out for the only princess available… Was totally caught by surprise that I had to turn against a fellow player!
    4. Variable game play of boss fights, as mentioned in the game mechanics section, resulting in many mini-games and not just all about hack-and-slash.
    5. Random objects that may or may not be interactable (crates, ladder, animals etc.).
    6. The game is social and playing with friends is always fun!
  1. I felt cooperative at first because we had to work together to kill off enemies which highly outnumbered us (lens 6: problem solving via cooperation) or kill the boss. However, I felt greedy and more and more competitive as the game progressed. This was because we realized that the gold dropped was not shared and whoever got to the gold first will gain it. The same went for opening of treasure boxes, food drops that refills health points etc. I found myself abandoning my friend who was being flanked by monsters to open treasure boxes… Because of how players battle amongst themselves at the end (story, mechanics), this game has a very unique game play that is both cooperative and competitive!
  1. Negative emotions due to game mechanics: I felt angry and confused when I was unable to escape attacks or hit the boss as I was not used to the controls. When I was on the verge of dying, I felt even more flustered and played badly, spamming the keyboard keys without much thought. I felt sad when I didn’t have enough gold to upgrade my character and when I died, especially to my friend at the end, because I did not like killing off fellow players!!! I felt bored when my friend kept taking all the items from me.
  1. I felt successful/satisfaction when we completed a stage, when I got to kill enemies, and when I got to items before my friend and when I obtained new skills and ability points. Being and RPG, players would want to keep upgrading so obtaining items, skills and ability points is fun and satisfying. It is also exciting and satisfying when we get stuck at some parts of the map but finally break through (lens 6: problem solving).

Analysis of friend

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

  1. Since he was now playing solo, he started off apprehensive. With two players, it was already difficult to survive and he was not sure how a single-player game will go. At the same time, he felt excited (lens 4: curiosity: having different modes adds to the excitement of the game) and confident (since this is a repeat play).
  1. He was satisfied and happy when he cleared each stage. When he did not, he felt disappointed yet in some sense accomplished and eager for more. This is because the game grants players some ability points when s/he fails to clear the stage and players can become stronger and attempt to clear the stage again (lens 5: endogenous value in playing over and over even if the player isn’t strong enough to clear the stage yet).
  1. My friend was obviously more focused playing alone. Now his intention was just to clear the stage whereas previously, we were just trying out a new game, having fun and also fighting for resources.
  1. He also felt panic or curious when he didn’t know what was happening. Playing solo also meant that the stage restarts upon death, so staying alive was more important than in multiplayer where we can revive each other. When death is less imminent, he would be curious and ask what he’s supposed to do now and try out new things (lens 4/6: curiosity/problem solving).

Comparison and Learning Points

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

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

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

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

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

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

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