Pac-Man is an arcade game considered a classic by many. The objective of the game is to eat all the pac-dots in the level to move on to the next. There are 4 enemies that roam around the level trying to capture Pac-Man. If one of them touches him, he loses a life. In each level there are power-up pac-dots that give Pac-Man the ability to eat his enemies for a limited amount of time. The power-up also slows the enemies and they reverse direction to avoid Pac-Man. Below is a sample playthrough of the first level in Pac-Man.
The purpose of this blog is to take a rule from Pac-Man and change it to reflect a new mechanic.
Rule: When Pac-Man eats a power-up pac-dot, he can eat his enemies.
Rule Change: When Pac-Man eats a power-up pac-dot, he becomes both invisible and invincible to his enemies.
Effects on Gameplay: Without knowing the location of Pac-Man enemies would resort to randomly moving about the level. The player would be able to eat pac-dots free of immediate danger. However, because enemies are moving randomly, the player may become visible near an enemy and suddenly find themselves in danger.
For this quest, we have been tasked to list ten of our favourite games, and name the objective for each, describe the similarities between them, and then define the types of games that appeal to us.
So my current 10 favourite games are, in no particular order
Batman Arkham City: Forbidden Act, Outwit, Solution, Exploration
Based on the above games, and my own personal preference for games I can safely say that my favourite games start by being open world. I love being given the freedom to explore a world and most of all a world where I feel I can make meaningful choices. I love venturing into new lands and discovering what is there, and I often enjoy just looking around at the environments and the characters that inhabit it.
Secondly I enjoy a good challenge in the form of a puzzle. I've always enjoyed problem solving, and I've found that games that incorporate this really attract my attention. I don't necessarily enjoy solving a Rubik's cube though. I prefer optimizing a small system to make it work the way I want it to or need it to. Kerbal Space Program, a game in development and available on Steam Greenlight is a game that I lost myself in for hours on end just trying to build a jet-plane. Discovering the right set of fuel tank, engine, wings, nose and tail kept me going for hours and hours through all my sessions. The game put me in the deepest state of flow I have ever been in.
Thirdly, I enjoy a good Forbidden Act. The thrill of doing something completely wrong, outrageous, or illegal brings a thrill like none other. The ultimate game series that does this is of course the GTA series. The ability to do so many wrong things whenever I want and get away with it is adrenaline pumping. Even if I don't get away with it in game, I obviously won't get arrested in real life. Seriously, when was the last time you got to steal a helicopter, get chased by the army, jump out of the plane and parachute to the top of a building where you proceeded to engage in a shootout with every cop in the city. The forbidden act also tends to give me a sense of empowerment over the world I play in. As Batman, I can disappear into the shadows and take down my enemies one at a time, or I could swoop in and fight a horde of them all at the same time.
I think what I enjoy most in games is being given the ability to do what I want in general. I like being given a lot of choice. Puzzle games that allow for multiple solutions give me a lot of choice in that here isn't just one way to solve a problem, and so I can explore different solutions to the same problem until I find one that works best. Exploration means getting to go where I want, when I want, and I like having that freedom. I want to be able to get to the peak of a mountain and look out on the world and just see what's happening. I want to be able to discover ancient ruins and caves and such. The ability to commit a forbidden act, for me, is more-so about having the option to commit the act as opposed to just committing the act itself. Just like in real life, we always have the choice to do the wrong thing, but we choose not to. In the same way, games that have the option to commit a forbidden act aren't necessarily forcing you to do it (although most do).
Now some may debate my view on the objectives of these games so I have included an explanation below describing the objectives in each of my favourite games.
Batman Arkham City
I have classified the objective primarily as Forbidden Act because in reality I wouldn't be a masked vigilante beating up thugs, psychopaths, and mutated villains because of a promise I made to my dead parents. In fact, even in the context of the game Batman is breaking the law by taking the law into his own hands.
The outwit portion and solution objectives of the game are in the detective aspect of the game, which in my opinion takes a backseat to the combat. You gain new information about the environment as you travel within it and can use the environment against your enemies. By gaining new knowledge of the environment, you can also figure out how to take out your enemies faster. The outwit and solution objectives are secondary, and tertiary, respectively.
Exploration is the quaternary objective; players can explore Arkham City at any time. Exploration is encouraged through easter eggs and collectibles.
WipEout HD
It's a futuristic racing game.
Assassin's Creed
The AC series puts you in the shoes of an assassin and allows you to kill almost anyone at anytime and is the primary goal in most in-game missions, as such I see the primary objective as being a Forbidden Act.
The chase and escape objectives are secondary and tertiary, respectively. Most of the time you have to go after your target, then escape the chaos that ensues.
Exploration is the quaternary objective, as you are able roam wherever you please within the cities' limits and discover easter eggs and collectibles.
GTA Series
The GTA series is built on the objective of the Forbidden Act, giving you the ability to kill everyone, all the time at any time. Not only that but the most recent releases in the series allow you to pay for prostitutes, go to strip clubs, drink and drive, do drugs and drive and so on. T
The secondary objective is Escape as a byproduct of the Forbidden Act, since police or even enemy gangs may chase you or flat out attempt to kill you.
Exploration is the tertiary objective; the most recent GTA, GTA V has a city so large you can literally fly a plane to get across it quickly. There are also tons of random and dynamic events that occur as you travel through the city to encourage exploration. The scenery in it's own right is enough reason to explore.
The chase objectives is a quaternary objective. Frequently missions involve chasing targets to eliminate them.
Journey
Exploration is the primary objective in Journey. I have determined this based on the fact that scarves are hidden in several areas of levels and although they are not necessary to finish the game, a player that explores will find these scarves and be able to jump higher.
Flower
Exploration is the primary objective in Flower. The player begins by controlling a single petal. Through their exploration of the environment they can add more petals to their control and bring life back to the areas they discover, although as far as I know this is not necessary to complete the game.
Kerbal Space Program
Exploration is the primary objective in Kerbal Space Program. The game is centered around traveling to other planets and moons in the solar system.
Solution is the secondary objective. As an example of a problem one most solve: you have to assemble a spaceship that has the ability to exit you home planet's gravitational pull, land on another planet, and return home safely. Finding the best configuration of ship parts is the most time consuming activity in the game.
Construction is the tertiary objective as you have to build and manage ships and satellites that are in orbit. Ships that are in orbit require manual staging and must be kept track of.
Little Big Planet
Little Big Planet is a platformer and traditional levels focus on puzzle elements. The primary objective for the pre-packaged levels is finding the optimal way to complete them, hence the game's objective is Solution.
Similar to the Assassin's Creed series, the main objective of Dishonored is the Forbidden Act.
The chase is the secondary objective as you have to find your target to complete a mission.
Unlike the AC series, Dishonored allows for several different paths to eliminating a target. In my opinion there is an optimal way to eliminate targets and as such, Solution is the tertiary objective.
Outwitting your enemies seems to be coupled with the Solution objective, as some missions involve you possessing others to listen in on conversations to gain new information which in turn aids you in your solution.
Escape is the quaternary objective as you usually have to escape the scene of the crime once you are complete.
Exploration is the quinary objective; as you explore a level, you gain new information into how it is constructed, and as such it aids you in your solution.
Civilization 5
Capture is the primary objective of Civilization 5. Players are competing for territory, food, military power, science, culture, and money
Construction is the secondary objective as you build and manage your cities and units.
Exploration is the tertiary objective. Exploring reveals more of the map, new land and potential resources, revealing unmet players and city-states, ancient ruins.
Outwitting is the quaternary objective. When you explore and reveal more of the map, you gain more tactical knowledge of the world, that your enemy may not be aware of; this gives you an advantage.
Solution is the quinary objective. Due to the cost of having large cities, and several units, often you must enforce abstinence in your cities to reduce overpopulation and you must cut down on your number of units to reduce maintenance costs.
This week we discussed the topic of game systems. A system in general is a simply a set of components or elements that work together as a whole by communicating with each other and acting on those communications. A simple example of a system is a management hierarchy in a department store chain.
In the example of a management hierarchy, as shown in the diagram above, retail employees, department managers, store managers, the district manager, and the headquarters are all objects.
Objects, in this case every box in the diagram above, are the foundations of any system. Without objects, there is nothing. But objects alone are not enough to create a system. Objects need to do something.
Every object has properties and behaviours. Properties are any physical or immaterial attribute. For the sake of simplicity, we will say that every employee has just one property; their job title/description. Behaviours describe how an object acts in a given state. In the case of the department store, assuming everyone is a robot, the behaviour of every employee is defined by their job title/description.
Now our objects - err, I mean employees - can actually work! But there's just one thing missing that is keeping these objects from becoming a system. Sure every object on its own works and can do something, but they are all just individual components doing things on their own, and a system requires that these components work together. This means we have to define the relationships between employees and their managers. To wrap this example up, we can simplify the relationship between all employees too say:
Headquarters----Assigns jobs to-->District Manager--->Store Managers--->Department Managers--->Retail Employees
And there we have it, the relationships between employees is defined and we now have a simple system (assuming the product is always there to be sold).
Now in games, the only difference is that the system is designed for entertainment purposes. The theory behind system design doesn't change, but the system's primary objective should be to entertain players in the system. Another factor in games is that we concern ourselves with how players will be interacting with the system. Players require information about the system to make decisions, and will require feedback as they interact with the system to learn more about the system and be able to master it. Players are of course, just another object in the system, and as such have behaviours, properties and have relationships to other objects in the system defined and/or restricted by a designer.
The final comment on game systems is that they need to be complete, balanced, and fun but challenging.
We can't leave a system with a big gaping whole in it, it must be finished. For example, creating a mandatory unsolvable puzzle that eternally locks the player in a room.
The system has to be balanced otherwise it could create frustration or lack challenge. An example of this is in PvP multiplayer games that match newbies with experienced players; the newbies have a stick while the veterans have machine guns, grenades and armor that makes your stick obsolete.
Lastly, if your system provides no challenge and isn't fun to play, then people will stray away from it. You can make sure your game is fun through playtesting, with friends, family, and best of all strangers.
Of the many games that I have played I'm glad to say that most, if not all, were enjoyable and in some way made me happy to have played them. But of these games I enjoyed, I can only truly say that one game managed to truly touch me and make me feel something I have never felt in a game.
Journey by thatgamecomapny, whose games include the ethereal flOw and the thought provoking Flower, is hands down the most emotionally gripping game I've played to date.
Journey is an adventure game, driven by story, exploration and platforming. The game takes place in an ostensibly endless desert. In the distance we can see a large mountain and its peak is glowing. As you move towards the mountain you eventually discover that you are the last of a lost civilization and you are its only hope of restoring it. The story is presented to you using only visuals and music, no words whatsoever. This allowed me (and probably other players) to interpret the story for ourselves and discover our own personal meaning for this game.
Everything in this game meshes together so well that it truly feels like a single piece of art. The visuals, music, story, and gameplay were all very compelling, and quickly allowed me to immerse myself into the world of Journey. Everything feels organic and real, and it makes you believe that you are indeed a part of this world. The visuals are beautiful and lend themselves well to the game's story and soundtrack.
This is one of my favourite scenes in the game. The stylized nature of the graphics combined with the amazing lighting captivated me. Sometimes I would just stop and look around just to admire the scenery.
The music is a paragon of music in games; the music on its own tells a story and perfectly reflects what is happening in game. At any point in the game, I could close my eyes and know what was happening around me.
The gameplay is very simple and includes mostly platforming, with progress being shown by the length of the player's scarf which also determines how high a player can jump. The story in Journey follows the Hero's Journey story framework as described by Joseph Campbell, but the way in which we experience this journey, and play through is very organic, and doesn't feel forced.
But even with the immersive aesthetics of the game, there is one thing that took me completely by surprise; the multiplayer. When I first started the game, I was on my own, fully immersed in the world and determined to achieve the the goal bestowed on to me by my people. Then out of nowhere, I heard a faint noise. It was similar to one of the noises my character was able to make. I followed the noise and looked around. And there they were, floating through the sky. They were just like me; another one of my people. But not like the quest-giver - large and dressed in white - but like me, dressed in red and much smaller.
I met this companion early on in the game and we had an unspoken mutual agreement to stay with each other. At that point, I began to care more about keeping my new friend alive than I did simply trying to get to the mountain as fast as possible. We tackled everything together, and we never moved on without the other. It became a cooperative experience, and I think my favourite thing of all was the fact that our communication was limited to just one button. We only had one real word to say, but that was all we needed.
When one of us got lost, the other would simply make enough noise until we found one another and continue moving forward. It got especially nerve-racking in the levels where danger was present, as we were being attacked and neither of us knew how to protect the other. We would try to coordinate our movements so as to not be seen by our enemy, but sometimes we would lose each other in our attempts to get past our enemy. When this happened, whoever had gone forward without the other would come back to guide the other to safety. Even though it was dangerous to back track and take the risk of being hit, we felt it necessary because it was our journey, and we weren't about to leave a fellow member of our civilization behind.
These stone monsters would fly around scouting the area like helicopters. The amount of tension one experiences here is reminiscent of some horror games.
As we neared the end, we reached the point of the Master of Two Worlds as described by Joseph Campbell and I lost my companion. They had fallen behind while I swiftly moved ahead unaware of the fact that they weren't with me anymore. When I reached the final point, the peak of the mountain, I waited. I was so worried that they had disconnected, or that they had quit because they thought I purposefully left them. We had started our journey together, and I didn't want to finish it without them. Finally, I watched as they glided down from above, landing beside me and the snow puffed up slightly and I could tell we were both relieved to see each other. We finished the game together and it was done.
This was my first and only playthrough of the game, and I loved it. The game itself was so beautiful, but I never expected that when another player entered my world that I would care so much to finish the game with them. I think the fact that the game had made me feel like I was the last of my civilization, and then to find that there was actually another just like me made that bond between this anonymous player and I seem even more important than I would have ever imagined. While I was playing, my only thought was "This person is like me. We are the last of us. It is up to us to save our civilization. We cannot lose each other again, and so we must stay together and finish this together," and I believe this feeling was mirrored in my companion that played with me.
This week our lecture was conducted using Adobe Connect, an online tool which allowed the lecture to be recorded. Adobe Connect also happened to have an integrated chat panel which allowed everyone in the class to hold discussions about whatever they liked; this week the class talked about the concept of play.
The conversation started when someone used reading as a form of play. Unfortunately I can't remember their explanation of how this was play, but regardless of why, I don't believe reading is playful.
Since then there has been at least one blog that I've read that questioned whether or not reading is playful, and commented on the fact that perhaps it has to do with a user's state of mind. They used a loading screen that displayed lore, or reading the information displayed by a text-based game as an example of a blurred line between something being playful or not.
My personal view on the matter is that reading in and of itself is not a playful activity. It may be an immersive activity that elicits an emotional response, and it may be intrinsically satisfying to read, but the reality is that the reading material is there for your consumption or it is being used to provide feedback in a creative or literal way. Even when the reading is contained within the context of a dynamic environment in which you control, the activity of reading is not playful. There is no interaction with the words on the screen and you cannot change them by interacting with them. The content is there to immerse you further into the game and make your playful actions more meaningful.
Text-based games require you to read because otherwise you would have no idea what is going on when you tell the game you're going west. In the same way you have to look at a video game to know what is happening on screen. Same thing goes for sound based games that require you to listen for feedback.
In terms of games like Mass Effect where you decide what to say in conversations, or Heavy Rain where you "change" the ending of the game, this is still consumption of media. Control of said media doesn't make it playful activity. The media is just being presented to you in a different way or different order. Like a movie being edited right in front of you.
I think the reason why there was so much discussion is that play is often confused with the idea of "fun". The lines become blurred because often playful activity is "fun" or "enjoyable." For the sake of anyone reading this, I won't get into what I believe "fun" is exactly. For now I'll just define "fun" as intrinsically satisfying experience.
The concept of play, in my opinion requires interaction to achieve a goal, whether the goal be made up or given and we must be careful not to confuse a playful activity with an "enjoyable" one.
