CS108 Course Relection

                                                                        Course Reflection

Throughout the course of the semester we studied about game design and how people in the game industry create their game. The MDA framework that people apply to their games to make it more interesting. I have always loved games and wanted to learn about them more, so it was surprising to see that there is so much elements there are to a game. 

It was interesting to hear about the presentation about gamification, especially when it was a week prior to us learning about it. The examples that he gave about gamification was very well thought out, which reminded me that there is can be an extreme in anything. I am someone who enjoys play games for free; downloading new ones all the time. I play clash royale, which is a game I ended up spending money on, because I wanted to purchase magical boxed to gain better cards to play. The game can be pretty intense, so I would always want to spend a little bit of money to buy some jewels to open boxes when they are on sale. 

Overall, the one thing I learned in the class that was interesting, but so simple is to fail faster. Creating a game is about trial and error, so the faster you have a game working, you will learn from that mistake and apply other mechanics to a game and make it fun. I enjoyed the class very much and learn the basic ideas of how to write and design games.

Galantic Defense

The game that Alex Choy and I began to implement is based on a tower defense (TD) game. It is a strategy based game, where the goal is to defend a player's territory by destroying the enemy before it passes through the other side.

The initial phase of the game you are set in the main screen, where you will be able to choose from three options which are Campaign, Infinite, and Exit. As you enter the game in campaign, you will see at the bottom a list of towers to choose from and when you hover over it, it will show you the details of that tower.

The goal of our game was to create towers that are in form of emoticons. Which creates a fun experience for the players, because it is cool to see emoticons shooting at the monsters. This is still a prototype of our game and there is much more improvement and upgrades we can apply to our game. We currently have two levels and it consists with two different enemies. Each of these levels have a soothing background music, that puts you in a thinking mood. ( at least that's how I feel.)

The wave system is implemented in several different ways, there would be the regular enemies first, then the second wave of enemies that follows. When these two are combined it makes it a little more difficult to destroy some of the enemies because they are moving at two different speeds. Once the second level is reach the enemies are coming from two directions rather than one. This happens randomly, so that it is obvious to the player each time they enter the level.

Future mechanics and upgrades that we would add to the game would be more enemy monsters and figure out the best gauge of waves for each level. This is the toughest part and would take many trial and error to find the fixed amount for that level.

Below is a link to a prototype for our game!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By1OJ09Z89bsOWtpVjljSm1hR1E

GPS: Ingress

GPS: Ingress

              At the initial phase during the launch, the layout for the loading screen fits nicely with this game. Revealing a orbiting satellite, after the game is launched it will put us on a screen where you must choose a side (The Enlightened or The Resistance.). I chose to support the resistance, because of the increase opportunity in taking over other portals from the other team. Depending on the location you are playing the game at, is where there are more portals to take over. In my case I was walking around the San Jose State campus and there is a lot of portals in this area from both sides.

             The mechanics of this game is location-based, so it involves moving around in real life to reach the portals. I was walking around the San Jose State campus, deploying all my resonators to the blue portals for support. Every time I place a resonator to one of these locations, I gain experience towards my next level. There are other options that you can do when clicking on a portal, but since I was only level 2. I didn’t have access to taking control of the enemy’s portal. There are certain areas on campus where it showed a grey portal. These portals are not occupied by any sides, so whomever add their resonator to that portal will become theirs. When this happens, you gain a few items and a link to a video Is sent to you to watch based on the monument that you have just visited. I noticed that once the resonator is filled, you will be able to link them to your other blue portals creating connecting points.

              All in all, this game requires a lot of exploration to progress in the game. As you advance in the game, you unlock more options to interact with the game.

Mass Attack

Mass Attack

The game that my partner and I created is called “Mass Attack,” which is based on a moving shooter game. In this game, you will be able to navigate your character around using the keyboard controls and shoot with the mouse pointer. The enemies in this game includes flying monsters and a boss.

The initial phase of the game, the player will be placed at the beginning of the mission. The player has floors and a portal to test out the movement keys before entering the first level. Once the first level is reached, you will be set in a new map and there is a three second timer until the monsters start spawning.  The mission is to destroy 50 monsters to unleash a boss at the end of the level. For every 10 monsters that are killed, the amount of monsters increase and so does their speed. From the previous version in our alpha, we only had the first room and was only able to move around with the player. Now, we actually have enough objects and a goal to consider and a challenging game.

The controls for movement is using the “WASD,” keys. Currently, our “W” key has no action for it. The “A” key allows the player to move backward, “S” key allows you to move under and “D” key allows you to move forward. We are able to shoot by clicking the left mouse click and the direction is based on the mouse pointer direction. In future implementation, we might add more levels to the game to make it more interesting. In that case, we will be introducing a difficulty level to choose from in further implementation.

The background music that we used in the game was taken from the artist “BluntedBeatz.” Otherwise, every other sound in the game was created by voice and a tweaking software.

Below is a link to our game:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By1OJ09Z89bsallza1cyQTg3TUk

First Playable: Mass Attack

                                                       Mass Attack

             The game that my partner and I is in progress of creating is called Mass Attack. The gaming mechanism will be based on a player killing monsters in a limited time and at the end a boss will appear. That’s the ideal for this game. My role as a producer is to make sure that we are progressing at a steady rate. Also, I am managing the design of the map, while working on user interface of the game. Is the game fun? In its current state, it could use more attributes. After we add more features onto the game, I believe it will become more fun and challenging. A more develop architecture will produce a better experience for the players to emerge in.

         

Features that we are working on now is making the speed of the bullets faster to increase the speed of play. In this game, we want to make it possible to maneuver from an object to another object to fight the monsters. I will be adding spikes to the game to make it more challenging to defeat the monsters without damaging yourself. Once a certain amount of life point is reached, then we will lose the game and the player must start over. Another feature we will be adding is the ability to restart, because it currently just stays in one level with no rewards. A menu page will be created to guide the process of on how to start and play the game 

The link is provided below where you will be able to play test our game.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tir32mmbuepogrp/Mass%20Attack.gmz?dl=0

Video Game Lab

Video Game Lab

There were many games that I’ve played in the video game lab, but these three were my favorite. The three games are, “This is the Only Level,” “Wizard Wizard,” and “Canabalt.” In the game “This is the Only Level,” the game is determined based on a set of instructions given by each level that you complete. Every level has a different mission to accomplish and there is a possibility that it can be tricky. In the game “Wizard Wizard,” the goal of the game is to obtain the key to unlock the gate to complete the mission. As the level increases, the task becomes harder to achieve due to additional obstacles that is being placed in the game. The design of this game is made very simple, but due to the obstacles that is added to the game, it makes the game challenging. Finally, in the game “Canabalt,” the goal of the game is to reach the farthest meters. This is achieved by using the space key to jump to the next building. You must be careful, because there are circumstances where you must jump into a tunnel. If you jump too high, then you will not make it into the tunnel and then fail the run.

The two games “Wizard Wizard” and “This is the Only Level,” is comparable in terms of its design. In both of these games, the goal is to complete the mission. This is observed based on the obstacles that is put in the game or the commands that are being told to the players. Movement is mainly depending on the arrow keys to either jump or move left and right. Although, for the game “This is the Only Level,” there are some tasks, where the player must use the mouse to complete the mission.

There are many differences when it comes to watching someone play a game than playing it yourself. One reason is that, when you are player playing the game, you think of different tactics to achieve the goal compared to what another person could’ve done. Each person responds differently to the game that is being played. When you are watching someone, you are able to analyze what the person is doing. Being able to figure out if there are any patterns to the game that you were unable to see when playing it yourself. 

Prototyping: Interlock

Interlock

It was a rainy Wednesday evening, when Ziwei and I decided to create a board game that requires some strategy to win the game. Meanwhile, we wanted to incorporate some abilities to the game, such as the ability to attack or defend.  Our initial setup of the game didn’t work out so well, the map of the board was too large that I was able to reach the commander before Ziwei was able to stop one of my soldiers from attacking. In the end we decided that we needed to change up how the game works, so we took out the commander and just used pieces instead.

Eventually, we decided on creating a game that deals with point-to-point movement. This means that on a board, there are certain spots that is being occupied by a piece. The goal of the game is to connect three pieces together and that will allow you to remove one of the opponent’s piece. I invited my girlfriend Ai-Vy to play this game with me.  Each of us had 6 pieces to start with and we took turn placing the piece to where we thought was the best move. Throughout playing the game, we were unable to connect anything, because the map didn’t contain enough movements for us to make. Every turn, we would go against one another and tried to block each other, which left to no one winning. We made a few more revisions regarding rules of the game and the amount of chips to be used.

During class on Monday evening, when we tested our board game for the third time. During the gameplay with Bryan, he managed to remove one of my pieces during the beginning phase of the game. This had left me with only 8 pieces to play against Bryan, who had 9 pieces remaining. It was tough match, because all of our pieces were in the middle and we couldn’t move any pieces that wouldn’t allow the other person to connect a 3-in-a-row. Eventually, Bryan had me trapped in every direction, any movement I make he was able to connect his pieces. After he wiped out the 7^th piece, it was a continuous roll of him, killing my pieces. Sadly to say, I’ve lost at my own game.

Session Report: Sequence

3 Player Sequence

During a Wednesday evening, when our professor at San Jose State University decided to let us play board games. I received this game from my girlfriend, because I thought it would be very fun game for other students in the class to try out. I thought this was a simple game, since the goal in mind is to create a sequence (5 chips going vertical or diagonal).

We began to play the game after explaining the rules of the game and how to become the winner. In the game of three players (Tuan, Kashan, Denny), each person is dealt out six cards each to begin the starting rounds. As the game progressed, I have created several patterns on the board where I am able to complete a sequence. Unfortunately, Kashan was holding onto a two-eyed jack (Wild Card) and has used it to block me from completing my sequence.

I realized that there are more chances of winning of this game, due to the multiples patterns I have created throughout the game. I made a remark to the other players that if you have the ability to prevent a player from completing their sequence, then you should attempt to.

Eventually, the game was finally coming to an end with only one winner allowed. Denny and I had a possible sequence to be completed. It is Kashan’s turn and he thought that Denny was bluffing, so he didn’t use his two-eyed jack to attempt to stop him. Instead he used his one-eyed jack to remove one of my chips. At this point I was complaining to Kashan that he had ruined my chance of winning. The next turn was when the game has ended, with Denny placing a two-eyed jack to complete his double-ended sequence.

Although, there was a chance of continuing the game, Denny’s hand carried 2 two-eyed jack and 1 one-eyed jack, which would’ve put him a winning position the next turn of rounds. During this board game lab, I only experienced this one game and didn’t get to try out others.

Link to Board Game: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2375/sequence

List of Mechanics: Hand Management, Partnerships, Pattern Building

Link to session report by someone else (if available): https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/264335/great-lose-3-turns

Internet Arcade: R Type-II

Old School Game

            The game R-Type II is a spacecraft shooting game with its unique features of gameplay. The player controls a ship that is able to charge shots and gather power-ups to enhance weaponry. The ship is called R-9C, which is an enhanced version of its predecessor R-9. In my experience of playing this game, I’ve noticed the difficulty of reaching the next level. It’s a simple game, but you must maneuver the ship well or you will end up starting over. Whenever the ship touch an object or the enemy, it will consider as a death. Although, I didn’t make it too far into the game, I noticed that the further you progress, the harder the game gets. That includes, the amount of enemies that is being faced and their retaliation with their beams fire. The enemies can come from any direction, so you must be aware of your surroundings.

            Playing this game through an emulator is comparable to playing it on its original hardware, but the experience is different. An emulator uses arrows and keys, while the original hardware consist of a joystick and buttons. Playing on the original hardware can be more fun, because you get to experience being a child again. Playing this game through an emulator doesn’t give the same impression of playing in its original hardware.