Game mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics

Board games and Video games have a lot of things in them, however everything in the making of the game depends on mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics of the game. So the game battleship was quickly looked at to explain all the elements talked about, so the mechanics would be turn based ruling system that is based around hidden information which slowly unlocks information as you play, then looking at the dynamics which would be guessing and random elements slowly building up to educated guesses and winning or losing due to randomness, and then the Aesthetics which is challenge and builds up frustrations and anger with missing but also getting pleasure in seeing the opponent miss a shot, and fellowship if you opponent is a sport and good with winning or losing.

This was then put into a broken game real-time game, and build an element of strategy and make the game be playable in may different ways. We added a shield mechanic and this change play as people slowly walled attacks, slowly making the game work around strategy of shooting them from behind, so they could not get away but this seemed overpowered so we choose to add accuracy into the game.

This made a concentrated hard game which revolved around thinking about the other players moves and how they slowly get a strategy and how the movements and turns you can do before being shot or needing to shoot.

Games Britannia

The BBC4 show called Games Britannia shows the board game and how it evolved though out the ages of the board game we know and play today.

Early games that had no board and thus the game was carved into stone of church benches and the games played whilst the long waits, which is much different to the modem games of today which are whilst sometimes long not always the same lines as being a more portable thing.

The show talked about a list of games and a main game that court my eye was alea evangelii which was a game where you would escort the king to one of the corners of the board, whist not as portable as the games in church chairs, it was a game was a game that showed a large amount of thinking with a large amount of pieces ,choice and movement though out the game which meant to keep the king alive whilst being overwhelmed, the games almost seem like a form of story telling or even a way of teaching young knights strategist and commands which would be used in wars.

Hazard, A game of devils and dice (as I will subtitle it); is a game that shows no more then gambling in it's strongest sense as you build up the total and the overall winning or losing of the game, the game was imported from east and is guessed to came from Crusaders. The church also condemned the games of dice as it was too trivial and god's powers as they called it was being put towards money, thus being seen as a bad intention act towards god and the church.

So from Hazard, and dice to cards; Namely Faro, which is best described as a danger betting game from London, the rules in which you would bet on a card, and the dealer would then have a card you loss money and a card you win from, left and right, if you place a card which is in the lose pile, you lose your money, however if in the win you build up the money that is earned on the pile and winning was just as dangerous as losing in this game as it would build to dealings, loans and dept that would cause people to lose homes and more, even the case of gambling taking peoples lives.

The show also talked about Royal game of Goose, and how it was to give penalties as a early race game, which was copied by many others to ride the success of the game mechanics and how it was strongly designed.

The games Snakes and ladders was inspired by more complex version called, "Gyan Chapoor"
which was a game about ascending beyond being nothing to becoming enlightened and having classes to the spots of the game and rooms or boxes, but the game was not of a competitive nature and thus the elements in snakes and ladders are the simplest form of this game.

The first part of the show was very interesting and the whole start to a three part show put a good light to watch the rest, if not at least read up more and try to pin point what in modem gaming comes from this or the elements shown in this game.

Sprite sheet

For chris next lesson, we needed a sprite sheet. I choose a basic sprite sheet from deviantart and will reference it below

The sprite sheet is a stick-man, with different movements and animations for things to test about with and can be edited to work.

Stickman Sprite Sheet(2010) [ONLINE] http://gigobyte98.deviantart.com/art/Stickman-Sprite-Sheet-164348408. [Accessed 03 October 2014].

Battleship experiment

Today in Rob's lecture we spoke about the book "I have no words, I must design" by Gred Costikyan and we spoke about emotions and changing the game battleship to those emotion.

My idea was to add to the battleship rules by when you sink a ship the player must say a direction of where the nears next one is, if one is the same distance over squares then you would choice which one you wanted to give up and say that direction, this would make the game faster when finding and sinking a ship and take a way an impatient part of play.

This could also be used to lead players away from a ship meaning they could trick a player to find all of them other then one which the direction given is over the whole ship, however this is a risky play due to if found is the last ship and therefore making the game end quicker.

Classification of games.

Strike Suit Zero:
The game strike suit zero is a game which has a main focus on Ilinx (Vertigo) and minor Mimicry (Simulation) elements as the game is a space mech fighter game which the over all focus of avoiding missiles and completing missions that are focused on  defending hits from a friendly ship, or taking out a number of enemy. The game also looks at mimicry as a point of simulating a space battle (as best we can with the technology and fiction we have of this time era). Whist a add on to the game could make the game Paidia, the main game and core of it is focused on being Ludus, where set missions are the only way to progress in the game, but how you go about completing them meaning it has a minor Paidia, and freedom to play.

Elements of the game make it more of a simulation by adding the AI to do battle formations and moves but the lack of space knowledge but from current technology can guess from Airplane Maneuver and "Dog Fights"; This also improves on the Ilinx side of the game as moving and skill of flying.

http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2013/01/StrikeSuitZero1.jpg

2014. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2013/01/StrikeSuitZero1.jpg. [Accessed 16 October 2014].

Magicka:

Magicka is a game that is a co-op fantasy game that is built to make the player interaction much more damaging to the players (for example Players attacks can connect to other players by accident resulting in a damage or death).

The game seems to show a large amount of Alea and Agôn which is because the chance you forget a spell from it's complex spell mechanic, you may end up blowing up your team mate, or healing you enemy. The game also applies to Agôn as it survival of the fittest, every magic user for them self as they all blast fire, earth, water, thunder, arcane, life, and shielding. Whilst playing the communication (or lack of) will effect the players choices, how they play, and if success or fail.

http://www.hardcoregamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/magicka-2.jpg

2014. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.hardcoregamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/magicka-2.jpg. [Accessed 16 October 2014].

Bibliography

Murray, J.W (2013) Game development for IOS with Unity3D, New York , CRC Press.



Félibien des Avaux A., (1999) "Conférence de L'Academie Royal de Peinthre et de Sculpture" in
Edwards, S. Art and its histories: A Reader , London , Yale University Press P.34 - 36

• Rajagopalan, M. & Schwartz, D.I. 2005, "Game Design and Game-Development Education", Phi Kappa Phi Forum, vol. 85, no. 2, pp. 29.

Critical Game Design Studies

Blog for the Introduction to Critical Games Studies.
Interview type up:
"What is the title of the book (Fiction) you are currently reading, or what is the title of the last fiction book you read?"

My last fictional book I read was Game of Thrones, which I gained interest in whilst watching a youtuber called "SidewaysThinker". The book was great however slower and slow my reading progressed and as of now I am only on page 200.
"SidewaysThinker" did Lore, Book and Tv comparison which is what interested me the most as it was what the media missed, The Books had so much more info but slower pacing but the Tv show had less information and more action and better visualization.

"What is the title/topic of the book (Non-Fiction) you are currently reading, or what is the title/topic of the last non-fiction book you read?"

The Dictionary does not count and other then Jesse Schelle's Art of Game Design book, the last non fiction book I remember would be A criminology book - techniques of finding evidence, however this was a long time a go and the reason was due to an anime called "Death note" which had a strong look at criminology and detective novel feel.

"What is the last live performance (music, drama or dance) you attended?"

The last time I went to a music, drama or dance, would be back in primary school with the group assemblies and we had to once a year host the stage and due to being in a christian school (Even if I'm not christian) we had to sing christian songs and play's.

"What is the title of the last film you saw at the cinema/ online or watched on DVD?"

The last English movie or film I can't remember however the most resent film would be a non-English one, "Code Geass: Akito The Exiled" to which each episode is the same length as an hour movie.

"How often do you read a newspaper? (Which one? Online or Physical?)"

I read Yahoo News if something interesting pops up or something related to media however it rare it grabs my attention to the news. If gaming related and the information on the side is not correct I do tend to get angry due to the fact of painting the gaming community and industry like it's a bad thing and it cause more violence or destruction then  creativity.

"Which Art gallery/Museum/Exhibition did you last visit?"

The last Art Gallery I went to was one in Germany, Berlin. Due to college having the trip and saying it would help are studies I went to the week trip to Germany and Art Gallery was one of the many thing we visited. The peers played a shouting game in the Art Gallery and it was not the best thing to due, The security guard sent the wrong student out of the Gallery and overall with the most broken English spoke to the tutor, in which was both rude and silly with his way of saying "he should control his students."

"How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?"

Depending on my mood and if I have new games and time I would say an hour a day so 7 hours a week, this is due to just when I have time to play or record games, If not then play less then an hour some days.

"How many hours a week do you spend playing games other them video games"

I spend Wednesday's playing Badminton and recently have been trying to play more card games like YuGiOh and board games. so an guess for a week of hours spent on this would be roughly 5 hours a week.