On February 2nd, 2019, I went to the WINTER PLAY: NYC Game Expo event held at 11 Times Squre. There were many games that I’ve seen before from the Halloween Game Expo (http://portfolio.newschool.edu/leekp733/2018/11/05/report-halloween-game-expo-2018/) and it was very interesting to see how some of the game developed. Also, I got a chance to try out games that I didn’t had a chance to get a look at from the last time I was at the event.
One example of this was Project Beach House (https://glen-devan.itch.io/project-beach-house). Since the Halloween Game Expo, I was intrigued by the poster art of this game, and this time, I was able to take a good look through the concept artworks of the game with the artist himself there to talk about it. It is a point and click horrror game with pixeled aesthetic, and since Horror is one of my favorite genre, I was interested. Seeing how the pencil sketches tranformed into the actual game with various artistic and style choices being made throughout the process was very interesting. It made me think about how I could, in my own game, translate the feeling I had in my initial sketches into the actual game through stylistic choices without leaving any crucial elements behind.
Another game that we played and I thought was very interesting was Kung Fu Kickball (http://www.kungfukickball.com/). This is a multiplayer competitive game where players try to kick the ball and score against the opposing team. For this game, I think it is a good example of how to create a new game while using an existing mechanic with design. On the basic level, the mechanic of Kung Fu Kickball isn’t anything new, but the use of Asian motifs in the art, the sound effects, and the way in which each player character moves has given the game an original feeling to it. In addition, instead of having just a simple goal to shoot the ball into, the game uses a bell as a symbol of scoring as the bell would make a sound when the ball hits it. This reminded me that using existing mechanics and adapting ideas can also result in something original as well. When I was watching other people playing the game, as well as when I played it myself, I could tell that this game engage the players in talking to each other, making it both fun to play and fun to watch. Having players interacting with each other like this would help the developers in further improvements of the game, as well as simply proving that the game is successful in being a social game for people to connect with each other whilst playing the game.