Roboquest — Roguelike + FPS

Introduction

Roboquest is a First-player-shooting (FPS) game with Roguelike features, playable in single player or 2 players co-op. It was released on Steam in 2020 as an Early Access Game, later released on xbox in 2021 and now is being periodically updated with new contents.

Mechanics

There are 3 main mechanics of this game: FPS, Job System and Roguelike. Firstly, the FPS system allows players to use a vast variety of weapons to shoot down enemy bots. Players can also use sprinting and double jumping to dodge incoming bullets or to do sneak attack. Secondly, the job system offers players different special abilities such as shielding, teleporting, and launching assistant robots. The experience (XP) that players gained from shooting down enemies will be used to further upgrade their abilities. Lastly, the Roguelike system creates random maps at each stage, and players have the freedom to decide which weapons to loot from their rewards, which aspects of their abilities to upgrade, and which stage to move to after clearing current stages.

Story

The game takes place in the age where robots rule the world and humans live scattered through the desert. One day a young girl discovers a old Guardian robot, repairs and reactivates it. The robot decides to stand by human’s side, and help the girl to discover ruins for answers to save humanity.

The story is presented as comics when the game is loading the next stages.

Aesthetics

The visual art has very iconic Cel-shading style (rendering 3D models with a cartoon-like texture), which is highly inspired from Borderlands game series. A series of fast-paced background music is used to stimulate players to shoot faster and rush to their destinations.

Technology

The game is developed on Unreal Engine 4. There seems to be no specific feature that is difficult to implement. However, the smart integration of different mechanics gives players a immersive, re-playable gaming experience.

Lenses

#2 Surprise

There are over 40 shooting weapons in the game. Players can acquire them either from stores, or from reward boxes. Based on the unique feature of each weapon and job abilities, players will make different attacking strategies. In addition to the weapon genres, there are over 40 purchasable weapon affixes to enhance players’ attack power. Acquiring those weapons and affixes is randomized under the rogue-like mechanism. Players may feel the joy of getting powerful affixes matching their existing weapons, or feel the freshness of new combat styles with random weapons.

#5 Endogenous Value

A “Time and Experience” scoreboard is used in the game, which rates player’s performance based on time spent on current stage and number of enemies defeated. A rank from ‘S’ to ‘C’ was given by the system, and players are awarded with currency and collectibles according to their ranks. Currency can be used to purchase affixes, weapons, or weapon upgrades, while collectibles can be used to make permanent upgrades such as job system and store availabilities. Under such postive feedbacks, players are inspired to perform better to get these awards, and these award will again enhance players’ shooting experience.

#31 Challenge

One challenge is the mighty boss enemies at the end of each stage. They have much more healths, higher damages, and faster moving speed. To defeat them, players need to make calculated strategies in choosing their weapon affixes and upgrading job abilities. They also need to observe boss enemies’ attacking pattern, learn and practice to attack boss enemies’ weakness.

Another challenge is the timing scoreboard ,which is mentioned earlier. To maximize their awards, players have to kill more enemies as well as take less time to clear the stage. The maps are full of sliding rails and shortcuts, which implicitly encourage players to take advantages of those features to shorten their travelling time.

#37 Cooperation

Two players can play together in cooperative mode. The stages become easier under two players’ effort. Players can take different jobs to make combat more efficient. Chance of survival is multiplied as players can revive their dead allies by sharing their health. However, the communication between players is purely based on communication applications outside the game. A labeling feature that targets enemies or position the next area to explore will be helpful for strangers.

Conclusion

Overall, Roboquest has a well-designed game mechanics that provides player enriching re-playable gaming experience. Every single feature is simple enough, and even old school. There is no astonishing graphics, no attractive soundtrack, and no impressive storylines. This indie game utilizes its limited resource wisely in its postive-feedback game mechanics, as I feel thrilled in challenging myself to shoot down more enemies and sprinting forwards. I am looking forward to its complete version, which will be released this year.

Old School Runescape

Description

Old School Runescape is an MMORPG developed by Jagex. Originally created as Runescape, it was later split into two separate games, Runescape 3 and Old School Runescape, both receiving separate development teams over the years. While Old School Runescape was released in 2013 as a version of the 2007 game patch of Runescape, it has since received separate updates from the original, making it its own unique game, and adopting old mechanics rarely used in modern video games.

Link: https://oldschool.runescape.com/

Images taken from https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/

Gameplay – Elemental Tetrad

Despite being an MMORPG in 2023, the gameplay revolves primarily around point-and-click style gameplay, with little to no need to use the keyboard. As such, the game has received continual support and updates based around this core gameplay, limiting the number of mechanics that can truly be implemented into the game. However, despite these mechanics, the game still manages to retain its playerbase and appeal to them, partially due to nostalgia as one of the few easily accessible MMORPGs available back in the early 2000s, and due to original and engaging content still being released. The gameplay is hence kept simple, requiring only a mouse to be engaged, while still having deep mechanics and reactions required in harder activities such as combat to provide a rewarding experience for players skilled at the game.

Regarding the game style, Old School Runescape prioritizes exploration as its main mechanic, encouraging players to explore and discover the world, while providing numerous enemies to combat with, along with numerous skills to level up in this process of exploration. Currently, there are 26 different skills to train, allowing numerous ways of playing and different areas to focus on depending on one’s priorities. Combat serves as a significant part of the game, requiring players to adapt to and react accordingly using only their mouse. However, most of the game does not generally require significant reactions, or even attention to be paid to, allowing for more relaxing and less engaged gameplay. While this gameplay may seem limiting and unappealing, or too basic, its ease and simplicity can still be appealing to others.

Since Old School Runescape acts as an MMORPG, it also allows for player interaction and activities with each other, providing both cooperative gameplay with others, and combative gameplay with others as well. The inter-player interactions help to contribute to the experience through providing a community to share experiences with, and interact and bond with friends as well.

Story

Old School Runescape has no main storyline, instead containing around 150 quests, each separated into different questlines with their own stories and narratives. Additionally, events are continually held every year with new stories and lore, allowing players to be engaged into different storylines within the same game. While there may be a lack of an overarching main storyline, worldbuilding is still done through these various storylines, along with the interactions with other NPCs within the game.

Aesthetics

Old School Runescape is unique among other RPGs in aesthetics as well, in that it does not adopt modern graphics or utilize modern rendering techniques. Instead, it keeps its graphics extremely simple, to remain accessible on even the weakest PCs. This further separates it from its counterparts in other MMORPGs and RPGs, as it focuses less on these visuals to inspire and draw in players.

Lenses

Lens 29: The Lens of Chance

Combat in Old School Runescape is determined heavily around randomness. For each attack, a random roll is made, and the damage dealt or received is a random number between zero and the maximum possible damage. On the other hand, for gathering resource, there is a also a percentage chance of success required in order to obtain these resources. The majority of the game is played around these probabilities and random chances. For such gameplay, the appeal lies in the chance of the drop rates for rare items. These rare items vary in drop rates, ranging from low probabilities such as 1/100 to even 1/16000. Many players chase after these valuable drops due to the large appeal of receiving these unique items, along with the ability to enhance their game experience with these rare drops.

This randomness may not necessarily be a good thing though. After all, if too much randomness exists, the player may feel like they have no agency and control over the game, leading to frustration and unhappiness due to an inability to progress due to these limiting factors. The overreliance of randomness in gameplay can then lead to negative experiences, where players get stuck on certain sections due to luck rather than skill. For most of the game, the overall expected value of this randomness leads to no large variations in gameplay between players for certain activities. However, players may often remember certain events either fondly or unhappily depending on the randomness they faced, and outcome of their luck based on these events, be it obtaining their desired rare drops, or falling in combat due to undesirable luck.

Overall, luck and randomness does play a huge part in adding to the game experience. While it may be overbearing and frustrating at times, it also provides an enjoyable and rewarding gameplay experience for those who are able to obtain their rare items, thus serving as a double edged sword that provides memorable experiences to its players.

Lens 39: The Lens of Time

As an MMORPG, Old School Runescape can be seen as a game that never ends. Players often set their own goals, and accomplish them within their own times. However, regarding the time aspect, the game can be seen as very time consuming, and even monotonous at times. As there are 26 skills to level to the maximum level of 99, some players set out with the objectives of obtaining this maximum level. Others attempt to clear all of the quests. Both these paths can be very time consuming, as maximizing a skill level can range from 30 hours of in game time to up to over 100 hours of in game time.

As such, the gameplay can seem tedious and consuming, especially when attempting to achieve goals that require such extensive periods of time, and may hardly seem rewarding and even monotonous to others. This gameplay is somewhat mitigated by the extensive variety of activities to do, allowing players to either switch their current goals when getting burnt out, or focus only on the activities they find the most enjoyable. However, many may feel frustrated by the length of time required to make small progress, leaving players unsatisfied and burnt out, due to the lack of instant gratification and progress made. The large amount of time needed to be invested in making progress for certain sections of the game may frustrate players, and turn them away from enjoying the game, thus creating a limitation of the game, especially in attracting new players.

Lens 42: The Lens of Simplicity / Complexity

As raised earlier, Old School Runescape can be seen as a very simple game. It stands as one of the few MMORPGs that does not demand or even necessitate the usage of a keyboard, where everything can be done with the use of a mouse. The gameplay may hence seem exceedingly simple, in contrast to its competitors, and may even dissuade players from joining due to its lack of complexity, being seen as monotonous and unengaging. The ease of gameplay may even restrict game development and design, as new content cannot be created easily, having to make new challenging mechanics while being limited to the scope of only allowing the player to overcome these difficulties with a mouse.

However, the game combats this lack of complexity by pushing difficulty in other ways. The more challenging portions of the game still test the player to overcome these difficulties. Instead of requiring quick reflexes, the game demands understanding of the game’s nuances and mechanics to overcome these challenges. Players still require experience and knowledge to clear the bosses of the game. Of course, reactions are still necessary, but the game rewards its players for being good, and having the knowledge to maximize their efficiency. These features allow Old School Runescape to act as a game that is easy to pick up, yet has enough nuances and depth behind to separate veterans from newbies.

Lens of Community

As Old School Runescape is an MMORPG, the sense of community is prevalent through having many activities to do in groups, either through cooperation, or through combatting each other. Notably, a sense of community is fostered through the way Old School Runescape proposes new content. The development team proposes new content to be released, leaving the community to vote on this content to decide if it should be added to the game, or if it would break the game balance, or lead to unfun mechanics. This creates unity within the community, and allows for players to feel bonded in constructing their own game together.

Conclusion

Overall, Old School Runescape acts as a very niche MMORPG, appealing to certain players while being boring and bland for others. Despite having outdated graphics and mechanics, it utilizes this niche to its advantage, creating a unique game with its own rustic charm, and allowing it to survive this long over the years.

Dota 2 – A Modern Multiplayer Masterpiece

Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena video game created by Valve, and is the sequel to Defence of the Ancients (DotA) from Warcraft III. It is played between two teams of five players, each controlling a “hero” character with unique abilities. Set in a fantasy world, players on each team communicate, itemize, and strategize in order to outmaneuver their opponents to destroy the opponent’s “Ancient”.

Aesthetics
Dota 2 boasts beautiful and detailed graphics that immerse players in the game’s fantasy world. The game’s art style is inspired by traditional fantasy and steampunk, with a variety of characters, each with their own unique designs and abilities. The map is well-designed, with a variety of different environments and landscapes that players can make strategic use of. Players can also change items in the loadout for global items such as the map, or for the heroes themselves, to equip a more visually pleasing set they fancy.

The hero loadout for the hero – Dark Willow

Story
The game features a rich and immersive story that immerses players in the game’s world. The story is built around the ancient struggle between the Radiant and Dire factions, with players taking on the role of heroes fighting for one of these factions. The game’s heroes are also well-developed and have their own unique personalities and motivations. While this aspect is largely overlooked due to it not being directly integrated into the gamplay, it provides a sense of history and continuity to the game, which can greatly boost the game’s immersive experience.

Technology
Dota 2’s technology is noteworthy. The game is powered by the Source 2 engine, which provides detailed graphics and smooth gameplay. Additionally, the game’s servers are robust and well-maintained, which ensures that players can play with minimal lag and interruption. The game’s matchmaking system is also well-designed, which ensures that players are matched with opponents of similar skill levels. These factors go hand in hand to ensure players get the best experience possible while playing.

Mechanics
The main focus of Dota 2 is its competitive gameplay, and hence mastering the mechanics and strategies of the game is often prioritized. Dota 2’s mechanics are intricate and nuanced, with a wide variety of heroes and abilities that players must master to be successful. The dynamics of the game are also well-designed, with a constantly changing map and objectives that keep players engaged. The game’s hook is undeniable – it is relatively simple to understand and play; yet impossible to master.

Lens of Essential Experience
Dota 2’s gameplay revolves around the essential experience of mastery. The game has a wide variety of heroes, each with their own unique abilities and playstyles, and players must master these heroes to be successful in the game. While it is simple to carry out actions such as attacking and casting of basic skills, nuances such as cancelling attack backswings, or knowing the maximum cast range of spells, to ultimately increase one’s efficiency, require much finesse. The optimization and min-maxing of such techniques set apart good players from the best ones. This sense of mastery creates a sense of accomplishment for players as they improve their skills and become better at the game.

Lens of Surprise
While hero skill builds and their items builds are predictable, the element of surprise is not lacking in Dota 2 at all. Examples such as picking up your items in fog, or barely hitting the next level such that you learn your ultimate skill before your opponent does can be unpredictable and put you in a favourable position. Unorthodox plays or builds can also flabbergast oponents and turn the tides of the battle.

An eccentric build by Topson, which arguably won them a game in the Grand Finals on The International

Lens of Curiousity
With the frequent updates and patches the game receives, Dota 2’s meta is constantly evolving. The best players are often able to explore and discover new techniques to utilize and make the most of, ultimately creating new strategies and shaping up the meta. A notable case in point at this time would be the “right-click Lina”, a hero traditionally played as an offensive spell caster instead. Players discovered this hero’s potential to not only lane well, but to also farm quickly in the mid-game to scale strongly into a scary late game power house. Lina’s pick and win rate have recently both seen surges, and this is all due to players’ explorations and ingenious ideas to keep them ahead of others.

Lina’s pick and win rate recently

Lens of Problem Solving
As the meta shifts, players are faced with new challenges and obstacles throughout the game. The best strategies at each point in time are strong because they seem overpowered without having answers. Players must be able to adapt to the enemy team’s strategy and playstyle. They must be able to identify the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses and come up with a plan to counter them. A remarkable example would be The International’s “The Play”, where team Na`Vi was able to counter the oppressive teamfight set up by team IG through LightoOfHeaven’s item prioritization of the item BKB, which allowed them to turn the tides of the teamfight instantly. “The Play” is often used by commentators and analysts to describe a moment of exceptional strategy, and is often replayed and discussed despite its age. Such memorable moments are only possible do to this problem-solving abilities of the players and will forever be highly valued by players and fans-alike.

A timeless classic from The International 2012, Game 2

Conclusion
In conclusion, Dota 2 is a remarkable game that stands out due to its unique and immersive gameplay experience. The game’s aesthetics, mechanics, story and technology all contribute to its success and make it one of the most popular games in the world. The game’s complexity, competitive nature, sense of community and regular updates keep players engaged and invested in the game. These elements combined make for an unparalleled gaming experience that keeps players coming back for more.

Splinter Cell Double Agent

Credits: thegamesdb, Wallpaper Abyss

Game Summary

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent (SCDA) is a 2006 stealth action-adventure game. Players play as Sam Fisher, an elite special operations soldier working for the Third Echelon organisation, a black-ops division of the National Security Agency (NSA). In this edition of Splinter Cell, Fisher infiltrates a terrorist organisation known as the John Brown’s Army (JBA) and is sent on various missions for both the NSA and JBA. During each mission, in addition to the main objectives, players have to strike a balance in appeasing both sides, which is influenced by the choices of difficult decisions, how players choose to complete missions, and even whether the player uses lethal or non-lethal means. Where players lie in the balance between the NSA and JBA will result in slight variations in the story, some even affecting gameplay, such as by determining what equipment the player gets for different missions.

The Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics

The game has realistic and dark visual aesthetics, with a focus on light and shadows. This is not just a cosmetic choice, as the use of darkness plays a pivotal role in Splinter Cell’s stealth gameplay. Such practicality applies to the game’s sound design as well; sounds give players an additional stealth tool and, coupled with the use of music, create tension very effectively.

Technology

At the time (2006), the game had state-of-the-art realism, including physics, lighting, and character animation. SCDA also used (at the time) advanced artificial intelligence for the enemies, allowing them to react realistically to the player’s movements and actions. The AI was powered by SpirOps through the Drive Oriented engine, allowing nondeterministic and ‘clever’ AI enemies.

Mechanics

The Splinter Cell games utilise stealth and action-based game mechanics. Players must navigate through levels (missions) taking whatever approach they see fit, be it a stealth approach, a loud and violent approach, or a mix of the two. Players are also equipped with a variety of gadgets such as snake cameras, various grenades (smoke, EMP, stun, etc…), drones, and the iconic multi-vision goggles.

The mechanic that sets SCDA apart from other games in the Splinter Cell series is the balancing players have to do in order to remain in the good graces of both the NSA and JBA.

Story

Sam Fisher’s story was heavily influenced by social and political events of the time, namely the War on terror, which was officially declared on the 15th of September, 2001, and is ongoing today. Additionally, the story focuses on morality and the consequences of one’s actions, asking the player: “How far will you go to keep your identity secret?”

The Lenses of Game Design

The Lens of Essential Experience

SCDA provides a realistic and challenging experience for players. To complete levels, players must use a mix of skill and puzzle-solving. At the same time, players have full control over how they wish to complete levels, loudly or quietly, or which routes they wish to take to their objective, etc. Such control creates a deeply immersive experience for players.

The Lens of Meaningful Choices

Throughout the game the player is posed with decisions which they will quickly learn has consequences in the future. Kill the guards or knock them out? Give your only weapon to an ‘ally’ or hold onto it for yourself? Share information with the NSA and risk your cover being blown or keep quiet? Many decisions directly affect the player in the near or far future; how much the JBA or NSA trusts you determines what sort of equipment you get, what allies you make and eventually the outcome of the entire story.

“Jamie hates this guy. If I kill him. I’m Jamie’s best buddy for life, which is good for the mission.” -FISHER

The Lens of Fun

Players derive fun from the game by progressing through and completing missions. Each mission presents unique challenges to the player, sometimes calling for a specific approach, presenting a time constraint, or even introducing secondary mechanics like lockpicking or hacking. The keeps the player engaged and having fun throughout the game, allowing them to feel satisfaction whenever they managed to make progress.

The Lens of Curiosity

This lens is primarily driven by the riveting story of SCDA. With each mission, the player unveils more and more of JBA’s terrorist plan, feeding their curiosity while making players eager to learn more. The lens of meaningful choices is also relevant here as players will be curious about what the implications of their actions and decisions might be. These features co-constructively create and indulge the players’ curiosity.

The Lens of Problem Solving

Every section of every mission presents the player with a new problem to solve. Players have to come up with creative solutions using gadgets, exploring different approaches, and learning how different enemies behave, all while being careful yet decisive. Every time a player successfully advances by solving the problem presented to them, they gain the fulfilment of knowing that they figured it out for themselves.

Conclusion

In addition to the game development principles outlined in this article, SCDA employs an assortment of relevant concepts including the lenses of the player, flow, and skill vs chance, just to name a few. While there is no formula for success in game design, there is no doubt that these principles contributed to the largely positive reception the game received from players and critics alike.

Credits

Images are screenshots from AFGuidesHD, Splinter Cell Double Agent (PS2) Gameplay Walkthrough Part 1 – Full Game Movie

Slay the Spire – Roguelike Deck-building

Introduction
Slay the Spire (StS) is a deck-building roguelike by Mega Crit Games. Players face waves of enemies to progress through several acts, fighting a boss at each act. The art in StS is relatively simple, and card art designs are created by fans. Albeit having a relatively simple story and almost no game progression, StS managed to capture the hearts of its fans via unique deck-building strategies and “ascension” mechanics, garnering Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam.

Story
StS has a relatively simple story: simply climb to the top of the spire. The player uses 1 of 4 characters and climbs up a spire full of enemies. Each enemy requires different forms of strategies to fight, making each fight a unique experience. Player progress through the tower in 3 “acts”, with a boss fight occurring at the end of each act. At the end of Act 3, the player may unlock a hidden Act 4, which contains the true boss of the game: the heart of the spire itself.

Aesthetics
StS a fantasy world with unique-looking characters, and a simple User Interface for users to track their cards and enemy actions. 2D graphics are used throughout the game, with only occasional particle effects from animations. The music gives off a serious feel, immersing the player in a dangerous and intense climb up to the top.

Technology
StS uses the libGDX Engine. The gist of the game is a single-player card game, where different cards have different effects, such as dealing damage, gaining armour, or dealing buffs/debuffs/other effects. While enemies do not have cards, they perform certain actions, either randomly or in a set pattern, depending on the enemy faced. Backgrounds and sprites simply follow a set animation. As it doesn’t render 3D graphics, lighting/shadows etc, the game runs very smoothly on most systems.

All 4 characters in action

Gameplay

Though the Aesthetics, Technology and Story may be relatively simple compared to other games in the market, StS’s mechanics is where it shines.

Core Gameplay Loop
Players progress through each act by choosing a route towards a boss, either fighting normal opponents or mid-bosses, visiting shops, healing up or encountering random events. Each node has its fair share of risks and rewards, depending on the player’s risk appetite and deck requirements. To unlock the final boss, the player is also required to collect 3 keys scattered across the maps, adding an additional layer of challenge should they want to do so.

As the player completes a run, the player can choose to increase the difficulty, known as Ascensions, up to a maximum of 20 times, each ascension level introducing a new type of challenge. This is the main form of progression the game offers.

Characters, Cards and Relics
Each of the four characters offers widely different strategies for players to scale the spire. For example, The Ironclad focuses on brute force and solid defences, and the Silent focuses on Damage over Time and flurries of attacks. Each battle can reward new cards and relics, which form a strategy over time. Players can also cut/buy cards at shops to better refine their decks.

Over time, if done right, players can possibly create satisfying broken combos which blast through even the hardest of enemies.

The lens of Problem-Solving
Throughout each run, players are given randomly generated maps, relics and cards. As such, players would have to work with what they currently have or may get in the future. They are forced to think about what kind of strategy they want to build, what cards to keep, and what kind of node to travel to next. The randomness of the risks and rewards causes every run to require a different strategy from the previous ones.

Even during each battle, the problem-solving nature of the game is present: As the player’s hand gets redrawn every turn, players would have to work with what they have that turn and think of how best to use their current hand and find a balance between defence and offence.

The lens of Skill vs Chance
Though the randomly generated maps, cards etc may cause StS to seem very dependent on luck and chance, the game has an incredibly high skill ceiling involved. For example, deck sizes and the proportions of cards in the deck can vastly improve your chances of getting good hands every turn. Managing one’s health and gold, as well as strategizing the best path taken to maximise resources is also an instinct that is gradually developed as one plays through the game multiple times.

Given enough skill, players have beaten the game at maximum difficulty (Ascension 20) up to 20 times in a row, as seen below. As a baseline, many are already happy with beating the game at just the base difficulty.

The lens of Simplicity vs Complexity
StS has a fine balance of simplicity and complexity, as each run can be as complex as a player wants it to be. The player can opt to play a simple “ooga booga, me hit enemy” build relatively easily, by just picking the cards that allow them to do so. However, if the player feels up to the challenge, they can instead go for much more complex builds like Silent Grand Finale, Watcher Infinite Mantra, etc…

Both simple and complex decks are capable in clearing the game if built right. Nevertheless, a base level of complexity is still present in the core gameplay; any deck can fail to climb the spire if not built well.

The lens of Pleasure
The game does not make it easy for players to build an optimized deck. Yet, there is an indescribable pleasure when everything finally clicks. Many fans play for the possibility of building up a complete, optimized deck and watching it decimate everything in its path.

Conclusion

Overall, despite not having a story or much game progression, which is usually the core aspect of many roguelikes, Slay the Spire brings deck-building to a whole new level, allowing it to remain the most popular card-based roguelike to date.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Description

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an action role-playing game developed by Bethesda. It is the fifth installment of The Elder Scrolls series and was released in November, 2011.

As the 2011 Game of the Year, the game continued to update and released three DLCs, Hearthfire, Dawnguard and Dragonborn in 2012. The remastered version, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition was released in 2016. In 2021, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition was released for its 10th anniversary.

Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

Skyrim is a open-world PRG. Players can explore this vast world freely either in first-person or third-person.

Players could focus on completing the main story which may take up to several hours. Besides, there are also numerous exciting side quests. In fact, most players spend more time on side quests (or mods) rather than main quests.

To handle the challenges that are everywhere in the world, players can use a variety of equipment, weapons or powers to defeat the enemies encountered. Unlike many traditional RPG, Skyrim gives players more freedom in combat. A character can be an assassin or a wizard at the same time!

Players could also build their own house, adopt children from orphanage, go hunting or fishing, be a blacksmith or an alchemist.

Story

The game takes place in Skyrim, the northernmost province of Tamriel, which is a snow-covered and mountainous region. The High King of Skyrim has been killed and the land was in a civil war between Imperial side and Stormcloak side. Meanwhile there are rumors that Alduin, the World-Eater, will return to Tamriel and destroy this land.

Your story begins here. Starting as a prisoner ready to be executed, you will have a variety of adventures and eventually become the savior of the world with your Dragonborn powers.

Aesthetics

Skyrim provides an immersive experience with high quality 3D graphics. Bethesda managed to create a vibrant and dynamic world. All kinds of details made the world very realistic such as the insects fluttering around the plants and little animals wandering in forests.

The best part is how Bethesda designed and created the different cities in Skyrim. Each city has its own unique aesthetic style. For example, Riften, the home to the Thieves Guild, feels darker and damper than other cities and players would immediately know that it is a place full of corruption and crime when they enter the city.

Technology

The game was developed with Bethesda’s own engine, Creation Engine. Although it is not considered a good engine and was often criticized of being buggy and poor in performance, Creation Engine actually makes it possible to create all kinds of mods which really takes the game to another level.

Other Lens

Curiosity

As mentioned above, the Skyrim is a vast world waiting for players to explore. Players’ curiosity would be stimulated as they travel around Skyrim.

Bethesda has detailed settings for this world covering all kinds of aspects including history, culture, geography and mythology, etc. These settings constructed this mysterious world which creates desire in players to explore and discover.

Meaningful Choices

The choices players make are meaningful in the game. Every choice would have some impact on the world.

The most important choice would be to join which side of the civil war in Skyrim. The player as a solider on one side would with their own eyes see how the other side is defeated and conquered city by city. At the end, the civil war will end in the player’s hand.

All these meaningful choices give the player a sense that he is not just an audience, but a living, breathing character in the world.

Challenge

The combat in Skyrim is challenging and thrilling. The Player would encounter a variety of enemies along the journey, from humanoid enemies like bandits and draugrs, beasts like wolves and bears, to the deadliest creatures in Skyrim, dragons. So, the player might need to have some strategies in fighting with enemies otherwise he will not survive.

A good thing is that the difficulty level can be adjusted during the game, so if the player really feels the combat is too challenging, he can always try again in an easier way.

Freedom

Skyrim gives full freedom to the player and lets players decide what to do during the game. A player could abandon the main quests entirely and have fun in the game world without any problem.

This level of freedom in gameplay is very rare in other games. I think this is how Skyrim stands out and becomes one of the best open-world RPG ever.


https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/skyrim

Minecraft (yes very original)

Minecraft with the farplane 2 mod, which allows infinite rendering of the world.

Minecraft. That’s probably all the introduction this game needs. You do 2 things. Mine to gather resources, and then you craft your resources together to progress further. The limits set by the developers: your imagination.

The first thing that strikes you as soon as you load into a Minecraft world is how seemingly endless the world feels. While lacking in story perhaps, the game is a blank slate. A place where you can create your own, and the way the game doesn’t put any restrictions on you is simply unmatched. The game that got me into programming, but that’s a story for another day.

Old programmer textures versus new textures.

First up: aesthetics. The game uses, by modern standards, extremely low-quality textures. Simple 16×16 pixel art makes up every voxel (called block) in the world you see. Yet, making such simple textures look good is far from easy. There is a fine balance between making sure that each block looks detailed, but not simplistic. While clearer, sharper lines may look like the texture is more detailed, it also lacks depth, making each block look flatter than their cube shape already make them do. Yet, blurring the textures too much makes them look, well, blurry. This fine balance was, and continues to be struck by Lead Pixel Artist at Mojang, Jasper Boerstra.

Of course, the aesthetics are not the only simple part. The mechanics of this game, are also deceptively simple. You use left click to break blocks or attack monsters, and right click to use or place items. However, that is before you factor in the vast number of items in the game. The game lures you in with simple, intuitive controls that are shared among any first person game. WASD for movement, space for jumping. Yet, as you progress further into the game, you find items like the water bucket, that add so much more depth to the mechanics to the game such as being able to nullify all falling damage by simply timing your right click and placing the water below you at the exact right time. This combination of simple inputs and items that change how your character interacts with the world are perfect for a game that really champions player regency and choice — the ideal sandbox game.

Story is something that Minecraft leaves (mostly) to the player. You are as free as you can be in the world, and all the goals for “completing” the game are optional. In fact, you are even allowed to skip all the progression and simply build yourself a town that has a story you yourself want to tell. In this vein, it is hard to find another game that gives you as much freedom, that lets you rebuild the world itself as you see fit.

Finally, technology. The reason that Minecraft is so popular is not simply because of the other 3 points, but that it fulfils all that without needing incredibly powerful hardware. Optimisations like only rendering faces of voxels that can be seen and the lower quality textures means that the game can be run on extremely old hardware, and can support a huge number of modifications if you have the proper hardware to run them. Each world is also run as a server, even single player ones, meaning that you can easily host a local game for friends when inviting them over in the game itself, without having to learn about how to setup game servers at all.

In Minecraft, the experience of the game really starts with surprise. The different sounds made and items dropped from breaking blocks. The recipes they unlock. The items you can derive from those objects. All these contribute to a sense of wonder, with each new block you find filling you with surprise as you wonder what comes next. The sheer amount of blocks in the game, along with yearly updates, means that even after years of playing the game, each time you boot up the game, there is a chance you discover something new, a different feature that maybe you never interacted with in your countless playthroughs of the game. This feeling of surprise is unmatched, and is incredibly simple to recreate for yourself. Just start a new world, and immerse yourself in an entirely new world, right from the beginning.

Where does the fun come in then? Well, the human brain loves rewards for completing tasks, and I feel like nothing else rewards you more than the sounds in the world you hear when you simply play the game. In Minecraft, each action immediately provides you with a satisfying audio feedback. The satisfying pop as a block breaks. The plop when you pick up an item. The cheerful, musical ding that plays when you pick up a bit of experience from killing a monster. The most genius part of the sounds in the game is that they never really repeat themselves. Each sound played is varied in pitch by a little, letting you feel the results of your actions, and rewarding you for each small action, making a normally tedious task like gathering resources seem like a fun activity.

Curiosity as well is something that the game encourages. Throughout most of its lifespan, the game has not had guides for most of its content. Information such as whether you can break a certain block is actively hidden from the player, forcing them to try different things and inadvertently steering them towards the infinite world as they break different items and put them together in different combinations in the crafting table to see what sticks (haha get it). A simple 3×3 crafting grid that lets you place items however you want lets players figure out how items are made on their own, with recipes for items to be crafted arranged in a manner that makes sense, while also rewarding you for experimentation and curiosity.

Of course, the game is not without its flaws. The problem solving required to “complete” the game by the developers’ standards has never really been made clear to the player. The surprise of finding something new is great, but only when it makes sense for the player to find out about that on their own. When the player is required to stumble into things that are not easily deduced from what we know about the real world that Minecraft is trying to emulate, we cannot force the player to use the same method of trial and error to simply find out recipes that make sense. It is in this aspect that Minecraft is lacking, but steps such as a recipe book that lets you know all the items you can craft with items that you have found before have made steps towards making this less of an issue.

Pico Park

Work together and clear levels!

Introduction

Pico Park is a co-op, multiplayer 2D platform puzzle game developed by TECOPARK. The initial release of Pico Park for was in 2016 via the game retailer Steam, featuring local multiplayer game play. It was later released on June 8, 2019 for Nintendo Switch. In 2021, the game was updated to add online multiplayer features to allow game play through an internet connection.

The Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics:

Being a 2D platform puzzle game, Pico Park emphasizes the usage of player movement to achieve the goal of clearing puzzles. There are only simple movements allowed, such as jumping, and WASD keyboard type movement. The core mechanic here is about movement, in coordination with the other players on your team to achieve the objective of acquiring a key and progressing to the end by opening a door.

2 players carrying the key to the door

Most of the gameplay is pretty simple, but it requires players to work together by stacking each other up or by moving in unison.

The need for coordination is amplified by the number of ways in which a player could die, which will affect the gameplay and cause the level to restart.

Story

Honestly there is zero story involved with Pico Park. It is just a cute animation game for players to play together. As a player, you probably would not miss the storyline either, since it was not an open world concept to begin with.

Aesthetics:

It has pixel based animation art, which contributes to a sense of minimalism and nostalgia for the players. It also makes use of the fact that it is a 2D game, to evoke the memories of old games on consoles and Nintendo DS.

This reminds players of their childhood and makes it easy for everyone to jump on.

Technology:

The technology used here is online multiplayer through either Steam, or the local multiplayer mode with Nintendo Switch. The game was simple so it did not require much control or complex tech to support it. This contributed to the charm of the game as well.

Lenses

#6 problem solving

Being fundamentally a puzzle solving game, Pico Park attracted the type of players that usually would enjoy solving a hard problem or did not mind failing levels numerous times over. The exasperation of being unable to clear a level only accentuates the fun or the joy that the player feels when he/she finally clears a level.

Hence, it was important to introduce mechanics that were simple, so that the player can focus on the core gameplay, yet still

#16 THE PLAYER

This was a game suited to all types of players. The simple game mechanics is meant to be easy to teach and convince other players to join. Without this kind of simple game mechanics, Pico Park could easily scare novice players away. By using only the basic player movements, players would not avoid the game because of a lack of skill.

#37 cooperation

As previously noted, this game was meant to be played with friends so that you can strengthen your bonds. It could also be played with strangers, as the time or sensitive gameplay controls naturally causes people to lower their inhibition and pleasantries.

The tasks must be completed with the help of every player in the game, which contributes to the need for communication.

#52 puzzle

The puzzles that were created layered on the need for communication. For example, at certain levels, strings were added, connecting the players and allowed them to pull their fellow players by moving along. This helped them to drop players down to collect items, such as coins and keys. By doing so, they would be able to prevent their fellow players from dying and resetting the levels.

Conclusion

Pico Park is an extremely interesting and popular game, which fascinates me because it was clearly developed on a shoestring budget. It showed me that there isn’t a need to overspend, but there is a need to really focus on how the game mechanics work and how they come together to create a cohesive playing experience.

Here’s some extra gameplay demo:

Alice: Madness Returns

https://store.steampowered.com/app/19680/Alice_Madness_Returns/

Alice: Madness Returns is an action-adventure game developed by independent studio Spicy Horse and released by Electronic Arts in 2011, based on the well-known tale Alice in Wonderland, but with much darker settings. It is the sequential to American McGee’s Alice. It is an amazing game of incredible world design incorporating a highly completed aesthetic system which ties the map, the character and objects perfectly into a cohesive and immersive experience for the player, with a simple yet captivating mechanism that challenges both the actions and puzzle-solving skills of the player.

The Elemental Tetrad

Story

The main character, Alice Liddle, was a girl suffering from mental illness due to the loss of family in a fire. Due to her medical conditions, she was kept in a psychiatric clinic after the fire, and then stayed in an orphanage under Dr. Angus Bumby’s custody. The main story line of the game takes place in two worlds – the real world and the wonderland where Alice would fall into when her illness relapsed, with the latter one being the main background for the gameplay.

Mechanics

The main mechanics of the game is action-based which sometimes incorporates puzzles. The player controls Alice in a third-person prospective to move, jump or attack the monsters. The game is divided into different chapters which contain visually stimulating maps of stylistic themes. To complete each chapter, the player needs to control Alice to explore and then follow the path in the map, jumping around platforms and dodging traps, while fighting monsters emerged from the wonderland. The most interesting part of the mechanism is the settings of the obstacles and enemies which the player can overcome by tackling the different abilities and weapons that Alice possesses. For example, Alice is able to shrink (same as the setting in the original tale) after drinking the magical medicine, which allows her to enter places with limited space, and also allows her to see things invisible to normal creatures such as hidden platforms. Additionally, Alice would collect different weapons along her way, from the close-range melee Vorpal Blade, the long-range gun Pepper Grinder, to the grenade like Clockwork Bomb, with each of them in designed stylistically that fits perfectly into to the dark fantastic world setting. The player needs to strategically switches between weapons fighting monsters. Sometimes, weapons are also used to activates triggers so to open up certain paths. For example, the player would need to put Clockwork Bomb on a trigger and get to the door before it explodes, while shrinking to see the invisible platforms.

Using Pepper Grinder to shoot the eye of the tea pot
Different weapons and customs

Aesthetics

The aesthetics of the game is completely awe-striking, with there being various themes for the maps in different chapters, each with its own appeal. From the surreally beautiful card bridge in the sky to the nauseous castle made up of flesh and organs, the player can literally have the experience of falling from the heaven to the hell in one second. The artists made use of different elements that complement each theme to design the architecture, the natural environment, the traps, the objects and enemies so as to provide the players with an immersive experience to the highest degree as if they have gone into the wonderland themselves. The changing themes also ensures that the player would never get bored even with such a long gameplay time. Rather, the player can always expect something new moving into a new chapter, as if each chapter is like entering into a different world. As the main setting of the game is on the darker side, there are more chapters with themes that can make certain players uncomfortable, such as the Doll House which pictures an abandoned slum with creepy dolls that can almost trigger the Uncanny Valley reaction. Yet for players like myself who are into gothic styles, this is absolutely beautiful (and gross at the same time).

It is worth noting that besides the majority of the game being 3D, in the chapter of Oriental theme, the game in which the player goes into a scroll of picture in which there are similar platforms and triggers like the ones outside, but all in 2D. This illustrates how the game designer makes use of different aesthetics to achieve the same action-based gameplay to make the game more enjoyable yet still consistent.

Technology

There are no exceptional technological breakthrough about the game as the game mechanism mainly involves simple movement of jumping and running, and the weapon attack is also rudimentary. However, the graphics of the game is considerably realistic and appealing in the time when the game was released.

The Lens of Elegance

The game has a simple mechanism that is intuitive to learn – find and follow the path, while clearing obstacles that hinders one to do so, yet with deliberate design of the maps, it is able to give the player an enjoyable experience. The levels are set such that the player would need to find the most suitable weapon or skill to use in order to proceed with the game. Along the gameplay, there will be some new elements introduced such as new weapons, but the total number of weapons or skills will still remain small and easy to remember. The complexity of the game is achieved through designing the levels cleverly with similar basic structures instead of giving the player too many things to remember.

The Lens of Curiosity

One major element about the game that intrigues the player is the different themes of the maps, as the player can expect each map to be in a different theme – Underwater world, Card Bridge, Oriental World, etc. After the completion of each chapter, the player would be curious about what the design of the next chapter would be, just like Alice who follows the rabbit into the wonderland, wondering what kind of world the rabbit is heading to.

The Lens of Story

The story of the game is not that interesting, except for its dark theme as contrasted to the original story. The main storyline can be explained in a few sentences, and the story is revealed to the player progressively as the player completes each chapter, in cutscenes of a few minutes. There is no drastic character confrontation or very unexpected twist of the story. Additionally, as the cutscenes are played in between gameplay which lasts for hours, it is easy for the player to forget about the last cutscene when watching a new one. However, besides the real life storyline, the player also witnesses the destruction of the wonderland through the gameplay, mirroring the destruction of Alice’s inner world of imagination as she falls back to the reality, which is more subtle but also more impressive.

The Lens of Time

With an average length of 14 hours to finish the whole game, this game gives the player an immersive experience in the world of wonderland. There will be multiple autosave checkpoints in each chapter before and after the player completes each small task, which can take up to 30 minutes, or 10 minutes for the shorter ones. Instead of a casual game that the player can play on the way to work or in between breaks, or game that can be saved at any time, the game requires the player’s attention for a long time in order to have the best experience.

Conclusion

If you have not played it, please give it a try. This is absolutely amazing.

Marvel Snap

Main cover art of Marvel Snap

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1997040/MARVEL_SNAP/

Marvel Snap is a free-to-play digital card game for Windows, Android and IOS. Released on October 18 2022, the game won best mobile game of the year at the game awards. There are over 200 cards released, with new cards added regularly during updates. Former hearthstone developers were heavily involved in making this game.

Elemental Triad:

Even though there is not really a written story to this game, the mechanics, aesthetics, and technology work very well together to form a common theme.

Marvel Snap Gameplay

Mechanics:

Unlike a typical game of lowering the opponent’s health bar, this 1 player versus 1 player card battler game has unique rules for winning. There are 3 locations which are areas where players can play their cards.  Each player can play cards to increase their power in the location. At the end of the game, the player with the highest power wins the location and the player with the most won locations wins the game.  A typical game lasts 6 turns and every turn a player has 1 more mana than the previous turn, starting with 1 mana in turn 1.

The rank progression system involves earning cubes. Win a full game to earn 2 cubes. If the opponent retreats, the player earns 1 cube. Double the cube gain or lost by snapping, which it is just pressing the cube icon at the top of screen. For every 10 cubes earned, the player enters a new rank and earns new rewards.

Art variant of Captain Marvel

Aesthetics:

As a Marvel game, it features characters and locations from Marvel Comics Universal. The cards are beautifully drawn and there are art variants of all the characters to collect. The aesthetics are very well designed and fit into the theme, the superpowers of the heroes are reflected well in their card effects. Wolverine, who has healing powers in the comics, have a card effect that plays him if he discarded or destroyed. Animations for the effects are short and awesome to look at. The only lacking component is the music, as the game has the same one track.  

Technology:

The game runs smoothly on mobile and Windows. Even though the windows port could be improved further, as players have problems opening some inbox notifications.

Story:

There is no written story for the game. However, by playing the game, the player can interpret their own story. There are three locations, and the player sends heroes against other player’s heroes in those locations. Winning that location can make the player feel like they are heroes saving the city.

Mindscape – a location in Marvel Snap

Lens of rules

With the unique rules for winning, comes wacky and interesting effects that can change the way you play the game.  From turn 1 to 3, one of the three locations will reveal its effect. The Bar with No Name has an effect of whoever has the least Power here wins. This discouraged players from playing cards with positive power here. Mindscape swaps hands with opponent, Weirdworld draws from your opponent’s deck, this can completely change your game plan. The Vault, Miniaturized Lab, Kyln, only allows player to play cards on certain turns, players need to plan and decide if they should give up or contest the location. Limbo adds turn 7 to the game and TVA ends the game at turn 4. This affects players with combo decks as they need to unleash their combos early or late. The rules of the game stay the same, but it feels different every game as locations and cards interaction changes the dynamics of the game. With over 30 locations and over 200 cards, the game has high replay value and tons of fun.

Devil Dinosaur – a card in Marvel Snap

Lens of competition

Players build their own deck and come up with strategies to win the game. There are many different meta decks such as On Reveal, Ongoing, Zoo, etc. For example, there is a deck that is built around the Devil Dinosaur card. Devil dinosaur gains +2 power for each card in your hand. Moon girl duplicates cards in your hand. Playing them one after the other results in a powerful combo. This powerful combo can be countered by playing Enchantress which is a card that remove the Devil Dinosaur buff. Experienced players know their decks’ strengths and weaknesses. They can also tell what the opponent might be up to after a few turns. Knowing when to retreat and when to snap is crucial in climbing far high up the ladder.

Upgrading a card in Marvel Snap

Lens of visible progress

Collecting cards to add to the deck is an awesome part of progression. The game has battle pass and mission which gives the players free credits. Credits are then used to upgrade cards visually. The card upgrades goes like this: New Frame -> 3D art -> Animation -> Shiny Logo -> Animated Frame -> Purplish Animated Frame. As the player upgrades their cards, they gained collection levels which is used to unlock new cards. It feels amazing to add new card to the collection and I always cannot wait to see what new card I unlock next. However, there are controversy around how the latest cards are being added to the game. To unlock the newest cards, the player need to be at the very high collection level, and it is still up to chance to unlock it. Some calling this game the first uncollectable collectable card game.

Lens of play testing

The PVP card involves tons of play testing to balance the power of the cards. Cards such as Leader is extremely strong and requires little to no skills to play it. Nerfs and buffs to the digital cards are common and are expected. To ensure the game has longevity, the developers require constant feedback from the communities and players. Right now there are some locations which are generally unfun, such as Lechuguilla, Subterranea which shuffle useless rock into the player decks. Many players gave feedback about this, however the developers seemed to not take it into account. Time will tell if Marvel Snap will become a truly great card game or just live in the shadow of Hearthstone.