Author: pavec302

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Games Midterm Playtest

I had my roommate Sean playtest my midterm game and wanted to answer a few questions before I finished it.

  1. Are there any bugs in the game?
  • The health bar needs to work and have more attention drawn to it in order to give the player a clear indication of what is good or bad and how they are doing in the game.

2. What specific mechanics need to be improved?

  • The walking was very slow, to the point where it was frustrating to the player and took way too long to get around places.
  • The object colliders need to be much bigger, as the player has to be much closer than is expected in order to pick up an object

3. Is the object of the game clear enough?

  • There could be more indicators to let the player know the difference between right and wrong, rather than just guessing.
  • Could be helpful to include a backstory involving both the player’s relationship to the creature and the subject of global warming and sustainable energy sources.

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Games Final Playtest # 1

I had one of my suite mates playtest my game who had no knowledge of the concept beforehand. The main questions I wanted answered were about how well the mechanics worked and how the player felt both during and after playing my game.

Because the game was at a very early stage in creation there were not many UI elements included at the time, such as text instructions, so I did have to quickly explain some of the mechanics but made sure to step back after saying at that was needed. This prompted me to think more about the specifics of how I needed to incorporate instructions and how important it is that they are thorough enough without being invasive.

During the playtest the issues of incentive and action came up with my jellyfish scene, in which the object of the game is to avoid or destroy oncoming predators. At the time all that I had was a single predator, which brought up the need for multiple and the importance of timing. The predator was coming in too fast which didn’t allow for much exploration and understanding of the level itself before being thrown in, and because of this players are inclined to freak out and shoot very fast which makes the kill too quick as it needed only three bullets. However once the player has an understanding it is then more effective to create that sense of urgency and panic because the game becomes rather boring if there is not much to do. Because of these issues I ended up changing the rates at which turtles come into the scene and increasing how difficult it is to eliminate them.

My play tester also mentioned the possibility of some kind of incentive, which was something I had thought about before but was unsure of how I should go about implementation. She felt that some players may need a more goal oriented game and might otherwise become frustrated or bored by the lack of a real end goal or a promise of reward. Because I wanted the gameplay to be more about the environment and exploration I chose to not include incentives such as prizes, but seeing as each level did need to have a definitive end and the points made about players needing something to work toward I did decide to add in some additional elements such as a score counter, values for items and kills/survival depending on the scene.

Overall my play tester thought that the game was successful in providing a calming underwater experience as far as aesthetics and mechanics, and most of her suggestions had to do with timing or the need for additional UI elements to make the experience easier and more enjoyable.

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Riot Games Business Report

Employee Count: 2,500

Locations:

Headquarters in West Los Angeles

Additional locations in Berlin, Dublin, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Mexico City, Moscow, New York City, Santiago, St. Louis, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo

How They Started:

Riot Games was founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill as an indie games company in September of 2006. Their first game became their most popular, League of Legends, and was released to the public two years later.

Major Works From Recent Years:

Astro Teemo (March 2013), a mini game/ arcade game for pc

Cho’gath Eats the World (April 2014) a mini game/ arcade game for pc

Blitzcrank’s Poor Roundup (August 2015) a mini game/ side scroller for iOS

Ziggs Arcade Blast (August 2017) a mini game/ side scroller for pc

Mechs vs Minions (October 2016) a co-op strategy tabletop game

Subsidiary Companies:

Radiant Entertainment, a smaller games company founded in 2013 that primarily developed fighting games and released them for pc on steam.

How Much Money They Make:

Their estimated revenue as of 2015 was $1.6 billion.

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Cultural Game Report

Something my sister and I made up and played often when we were younger was a game we called Kick Swing. We created this game in our own backyard while playing around on the swing set my dad built. We each had giant bouncy balls that were always around, and the incorporation of these two elements gave way to the creation of the game now known as Kick Swing. In order to play the game Kick Swing correctly you must have access to a swing set with free space in front of it and behind it. You will also need a large bouncy ball, it can be smaller if you prefer a challenge, and at least tow players, but three or four is ideal. One player must be the thrower, and all other players become kickers. The kickers are each assigned a swing, and will remain on that swing, actively swinging, for the duration of the game. The thrower is positioned in front of the swingers, facing them, at a considerable distance. The distance at which the thrower stands can be anywhere from around five yards to fifteen yards. When the game begins, the thrower throws the bouncy ball toward a player, trying their best to time the throw with the swings of the player so that their feet will be in position. The player then must attempt to kick the ball, and if they succeed they gain a point. The thrower then gets back into position after retrieving the ball and repeats this action with the next kicker. At the end of the game the kicker with the most points who landed the most kicks wins the game. This game was good at teaching coordination and timing, as well as working together with another player. Both the thrower and kicker have to be in sync and communicate to achieve desirable results which makes it a good learning experience as a segue into team sports. It can be assumed that the players have had prior exposure to actions involved with the game such as aiming and swinging, as well as players having access to a backyard swing set or a nearby park. The swing set in question must also be slightly secluded, or at least have a substantial amount of room around it. Kick Swing takes up a lot of space as the ball can travel great distances in any direction when kicked with the force of a swinger.

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Twitch Report

For my report the stream I chose to watch was the 2017 Injustice 2 Pro Finals. Although the commentators changed every few games and the players themselves were not streaming their games, there was still a common theme amongst the way the games were being portrayed and between the personalities of the various pairs of commentators. The commentators made the stream very welcoming and open to everyone by explaining much of the game, including possible reasons behind the players’ choices and reasons that certain choices may have made or broken each player’s game. This makes it a stream easy for anyone to jump in and watch, not just those who are very familiar and experienced with Injustice themselves. The commentators also speculated a lot throughout the stream, trying to get inside the minds of the players while explaining their choices and what each individual might have been thinking. This allowed for the viewers to speculate on their own about who has the best strategy and the reasoning for certain choices made. Because of this allowance the comment section was constantly alive with new theories and speculation, and with the audience members’ opinions on the speculations of the commentators, going back and forth with who agreed and disagreed with the commentators’ statements. Things such as explanations behind and speculation into game strategy and certain players’ gameplay is a large part of performative play. When playing for an audience it is important that the commentators, or the players themselves, make the environment not only welcoming but entertaining and captivating, as the goal is to keep viewers watching for long periods of time, not just attracting them in the first place. The players(s) or commentator(s) must always be aware of who their target audience is and cater toward not just their current viewers but also to the type of viewers they wish to attract to their channel in general.

It is my belief that with the development of virtual and augmented reality performative play will become a much more interactive experience, bringing the viewers further into the games they are watching rather than being on the outside looking in. Not only will it be implemented into tournaments and individual streamers’ rooms to allow all viewers to feel like they are there in the room with their favorite players, but it will most likely be pushed even further in the coming years. For example, viewers with access to virtual and augmented reality equipment may be able to project themselves into the actual game, experiencing the game itself as if it is real and happening right in front of and around them, rather than only watching the players and their screens from a distance. With developments such as these I feel certain that watching games in the way that we know it will slowly phase out. With the advancements of technology the need for platforms such as youtube to watch a player’s screen will no longer be enticing and will lose a lot of their viewership. The addition of commentators may also become obsolete, as viewers will be able to experience the games they are watching in a whole new way with the game happening all around them, and the need may fade away for commentators and speculators to keep things interesting.

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Affordance Design

The affordance I have designed for the classroom is an easily rotatable platform on which the tables and chairs of the classroom could be placed and, if necessary, secured. Because it would be different from the floor itself and slightly raised to a higher level, its form would imply that it is different from the floor itself and may have an additional purpose other than structure. The tables and chairs being on top of it limits the plausible purposes the platform might have, as these objects are not easily manipulated in many different ways. One main component of both the tables and the floor are that they are stable and stay in relatively the same place, which could allow for one of the first thoughts to be that this platform may move. The location of the whiteboard wall and the display screen being far apart created the need for easy manipulation and movement of the tables and chairs, which is extra information that would lead one to quickly figure out that the purpose of the platform is maneuverability so that all students can easily have a straight and unobstructed view of what the class’ focus is at any given moment.

 

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Stay Away From the Stingray Rules

Concept:

  • Players have to get to the shore without getting stung
  • Stingrays are in the path of the players
  • Stingrays are restricted to certain areas to allow for it to be possible for the players to pass

Object of the Game

In the midst of plenty of stingrays, the swimmer must make it to the shore without being stung by one of the rays. This is an interactive game and it is encouraged to have the stingrays work together in order to get rid of the swimmer and the swimmers work together to avoid the stingrays.

Players:

  • Stingrays (there can be up to 6-10 stingrays)
  • Swimmers – (must crawl) (there can be up to 5 swimmers)

Pieces:

  • Bases – known as striking zones
  • Partially see through blindfolds –
    • (A stingray’s eyes do not come in much use as they are on top of their heads, Instead they use sensors on their mouth to track any potential prey. The stingray player’s hands and feet are these sensors. Also, stingrays hide beneath the sand to hide from their prey. This is what inspired the blindfold and base idea. )

Rules/ How to Play:

  1. Players involved with the game distribute themselves into two teams : swimmers and stingrays. There should be more stingrays than swimmers.
  2. Stingrays distributes themselves around the playing area, forming individual ‘striking areas,’ in an order that is up to them (this will be your starting area but it can change). It is illegal to have the stingray players stand next to each other creating a wall like structure.
  3. The “striking area” is however far the player can reach without taking their foot off the base and without touching another stingrays striking area.
  4. At the start of the game, swimmers will begin approximately 10 feet before the stingray furthest away from shore or finish line.  
  5. The swimmers and stingrays are allowed to communicate with one another, but keep in mind that this will direct attention to them and the opposite team can identify where they are or depict how they plan to eliminate other players.
  6. Once the rays pick their “striking area” each ray will place their base. They must keep one foot on it at all times.
  7. Stingrays are allowed to expand their arms and legs as far as they will go without removing their foot from their base.
  8. The stingrays must turn towards the shore, facing away from the potential swimmers and place their blindfolds over their eyes.
  9. Swimmers ‘swim’ to shore by crawling.
  10. Players must avoid being contacted by stingrays.
  11. If a swimmer is touched by a ray, then the swimmer will be “stung” and will be unable to move and must stay with the stingray that stung them throughout the rest of the game.
  12. If a stingray catches someone they will have the ability to move 3 steps at any time of their choosing, in any direction of their choice unless another stingray is in reach.
  13. Special ability or “medicine”: the swimmers have a chance to get “special medicine” located on the shore at the finish line to help save a swimmer that was stung. In order to save the stunned swimmer they must approach the swimmer after getting the shore and tag the swimmer that was stunned to release the swimmer from the stingray. The stingray who had captured the stunned swimmer cannot attack either swimmer.
  14. The rest of the swimmers continue to move towards the shore and whoever gets across survives.
  15. All swimmers must make it across to the shore in order to win. If all swimmers are captured, the stingrays win.
  16. For the next round the roles are reversed (swimmers become stingrays and stingrays become swimmers however, there still must be 6-10 stingrays and only 5 swimmers meaning some people may have to be stingrays again).

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First Year Reflection – Cat Pavell

I am an undergraduate student finishing up my first year at Parsons, soon to be beginning my major courses on the path of Game Design as a Design and Technology major. Though, as an artist, my arts based classes such as drawing and imaging and time were more catered to assignments that I enjoyed and was immediately excited about as they were more art based, I was surprised by how much I also enjoyed my seminar and studio classes. Seminar and studio have been much more loose when it comes to project subject matter, and for the most part allowed me to choose what kind of projects and research topics I was interested in studying and putting into my work. The ability to shape one’s own curriculum is something that is not only very helpful to those who might not know what they want to do moving forward past their freshman year, but also to those like me who wish to branch out before being confined to a major and minor for the reminder of my undergraduate career.

Projects that allowed me to be very free in how I chose to carry out the assignment that were based around a broad topic or a skill rather than a specific focus have been the most interesting and beneficial for me personally. When projects have a focus that is too specific, most students tend to lean the same way and the final products are much less creative and therefore less interesting to both the viewer and the artist. However when an artist is given a greater amount of freedom there is room for them to both grow as an artist in skill by branching out and to let their creativity and the things that inspire them take control. I was fortunate enough to be in classes that were more lenient with subject matter that allowed me to grow as an artist over the course of my first year here at Parsons. Although I attended an arts university for my senior year of high school as a part of their high school program and already knew my way around many of the techniques and mediums involved in drawing and sculpture, this allowed me to branch out of my comfort zone and try new technology such as the laser lab.

Overall my particular style and the type of art I gravitate toward is evident among the final products of my assignments. I tend to make art that is representational rather than abstract and and drawn to organic forms as opposed to geometric. I did branch out from the art I am most used to, particularly in drawing and imaging in which I did a substantial amount of digital work which is something I had only been exposed to briefly in the past. The skills I learned from drawing and imaging are not only the most useful as I move forward in my game design career, but pushed me in a new direction creatively and allowed for a lot of expansion as far as my portfolio goes. I also branched out in my seminar and studio classes. I explored and utilized new mediums I was beginning to become more familiar with for studio projects and was allowed the freedom of project subject matter to explore conceptual matters such as personal identity rather than be held down by the parameters of a constraining prompt. In my related seminar classes I tended to branch out in topic as well, exploring the things that interested me outside of my artistic field. For example, my final research paper for seminar one was about archery, a sport I have been heavily involved in both competitively and recreationally for the majority of my life. My final research paper for seminar two was focused on a topic I became very interested in through art history lessons, Maori tattoos and the culture that surrounds them. These are both topics I would not have thought I would be able to explore within my studies, that the room for creativity in my academic classes allowed me to experience.

Though I typically enjoy projects with rather long processes and a lot of background put into the design or the overall concept, one project that resonated with me was curated within a week, outside of class, not meant to be a detailed process. As a mini project in my studio class to relate to the research papers we have been writing all semester in the paired seminar class, we were assigned the creation of a sculpture. The only instructions were that the sculpture be small, handheld to be exact, made of found objects, and in some way conceptually relate to the topic of our semester-long research papers. Because my seminar paper was about the importance and meaning behind tattoos and speaks mostly of Maori culture and the importance behind their tattoos both in culture and in personal experience, this was the focus of my handheld sculpture. I used left over tissue paper from a past project, of which I chose red and black. The red represented the passion and importance behind these very personal and significant tattoos, and the black mirrors the color that they are produced in. In black I cut out deigns similar to those used in Maori culture and integrated them into the red, meant to represent the being themselves. I then also integrated the designs in drawing form straight onto the red paper. My work tends to be very representational rather than abstract, and although I look for opportunities to branch out, I often find myself looping back to the same types of artwork. This project intentionally drove me to make a sculpture that was more abstract and conceptual with representational qualities rather than a simple depiction of the concept I was meant to portray. This allowed me to explore another form that my art can take in the future, and the quick process behind the sculpture kept me from overthinking which allowed the piece to speak for itself.

Another project that I particularly enjoyed and through which was able to explore my personal creativity was one I was given in my Time: Frame class. The assignment was to first gather images of objects from different time periods and collage aspects of the objects pictured together into many collaged objects or creatures. We were then to create an environment in which this object or creature may dwell and somehow bring this moment to life, in any medium we saw fit. I chose painting, as I felt it was both something that could effectively embody my creation and allow me to explore a medium I love once more before moving into the world of Design and Technology, which is primarily digital. The process itself was very immersive and creative, which I responded well to. Because we spent so long collaging I was able to go through multiple types and phases of designs for my final creature that was to be the focus of my painting. I then created a storyline, a post-human landscape during a time in which the land on Earth has been completely submersed into the ocean. Opportunities presented in projects such as this one are very important to one’s learning experience, especially in such a creative environment. Through this project not only was i allowed to explore my own creativity and reach into the depths of my capability, but I was also very inspired by the designs of my classmates. Everyone came in with different images from the beginning, and by adding in artistic styles and licenses no two projects were at all alike, making them all the more intriguing and inspiring creatively. Being involved in a project that allows so much freedom to explore personal artistic and conceptual interests and being able to experience the creativity of others is exactly what I had hoped to experience at Parsons, and this particular project embodied that experience very well.

I hope to encounter projects that push my creativity as much as those previously mentioned in the coming years as I advance toward my degree. Being in an environment that is creatively stimulating and allows students to explore as much as possible is very beneficial. I am ready to explore the new techniques involved in Design and Technology, and am glad to have the opportunity to learn a lot about the field and different aspects such as coding that I might not have explored otherwise. I look forward to advancing my career through the program and developing my art in the gaming industry, making art with intention and exploring a wide array of concepts as I move forward.

 

 

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Games 101: Vegan Card Game Review

This game is centered around the idea of the “obnoxious vegan” who is constantly only talking about veganism and trying to push their personal beliefs and practices onto everyone around them. The setting of the game is a party at which the group of people is approached by said vegan and have to engage in conversation. The game works a lot like Cards Against Humanity, in that each round someone is the vegan, in place of the card czar, and their job is to pick a vegan card at random with an annoying phrase that one might hear from an overbearing vegan in a group conversation. The rest of the players then play a card from their hand, all of which are responses to statements that might be made by a vegan and are often very sarcastic or aggressive. The vegan is then tasked with choosing who has the “best” response, which may vary based on their opinion, for example one might pic the rudest while another might pick the most logical, and the player of the card that is inevitably picked wins that round and “gets out of the conversation,” which is the overall goal of the game. The game plays very well and although it is very similar to Cards Against Humanity in function, the situations and responses are catered to a very different and specific topic so it feels much like a new game rather than a copy. My only suggestion is to perhaps make the responses more varied, as they are all somewhat mild and some could be more rude and humorous with others making more logical sense in order to allow for players to cater to what they think each “vegan” will choose, adding more strategy to the gameplay. There is also somewhat of a disconnect with the extra cards added in to allow for a player to sit out for a round, for example “phone call from mom, you are excused for this conversation.” This idea of cards with different purposes could be pushed and made into something more advantageous, as players already have the option to throw away bad cards they might not want to use if they want to sit out a round and these cards primary act as a throw away.