Escape the dungeon is a game where you, the player is escaping from a dungeon where a bomb is about to explode. You have navigate the dungeon and make it to the exit, making sure to avoid all the rats that are out to poison any living being. There are rat-holes in which many rats hide. The longer you stay in the dungeon, the more they start to leave their homes to come out and poison you. The only way to avoid the rats in jump over them when they run towards you! You have 3 chances to try and get out, else you lose.

 

I interpreted the theme very literally and my game is modelled accordingly. The player is placed in a dungeon where a bomb is about to explode. The impending explosion was to give the player a reason to escape – I felt that the game wouldn’t portray the theme of escaping without something to escape from. I also wanted to provide a challenge in escaping, and hence I added the rats. I think that the rats also fit the general theme of the dungeon and have a part to play in this space that I have created for the game.

 

The implementation of the game came out as a 2D platformer style game. The player would have the ability to jump and move left and right. Additionally, I added ladders into the platform which the player could climb. I felt that this gave a better sense of movement inside a dungeon that jumping on ledges. It also allowed me to widen out the ledges and make a better play area. The rats were designed to move aimlessly until they interacted with the player. The rats had a one in five chance of falling down a ledge, and a four in five chance of staying on the ledge itself. I arrived at this number after several tries of my own. I decided to have 3 rat-holes from which rats would appear since I thought that this would be the ideal number. I also added a check to make sure that only 25 rats exist in the dungeon at any given point. If not, the dungeon would be filled with too many rats and the player wouldn’t be able to move properly.

 

In terms of the gameplay, I was happy that most users were comfortable with the controls as well the concept of the game. However, I did feel that I might have made the game a bit too hard. One less rathole might have made the game easier to play and maybe a little more fun. While I was playing the game myself, I got used to it and didn’t realise that it’d be hard for someone who hasn’t played before. I guess that one less rat-hole might have been the perfect difficulty level for the game.

 

I must also mention the many problems I faced with p5. As I’ve said before, the addSpeed function seemed to give many problems and would make the collisions a bit iffy. Since I wasn’t able to figure out the reason for these problems in time, I switched to using pygame. In terms of the architecture of the framework it is mostly very similar to p5play – it has a setup and a update loop for displaying things frame by frame. It also provides collision detection and some other neat features. Python is also very comfortable for me to work with, and it’s object oriented!

 

Lastly – regarding the game as being an artifact. I think this game has a large number of possible interactions – between the various game objects. Each interaction is unique and adds a different aspect to the entire mechanics of the game. For example, the rats falling off the ledges forces the player to be wary of rats on the ledge above. There is a definite logic in the game and is obeyed by all the different entities of the game itself. I think of this therefore as a man-made ‘logical’ artifact. The game also deals with a setting of a dungeon (which would be alot more clear with well-defined images). It plays into the common conceptions of how a dungeon is and what lives inside a dungeon. It could be considered a cultural artifact in that sense.

 

LINK to files

 

To be able to play the game, one must have python installed on their computer. Next, using pip one must install pygame. To run the game, simply type “` python3 newMain.py “` in the directory of the file in the command prompt/terminal window. If there is difficulty in being able to play the game, let me know and I’m happy to help!

Procrastinate and Scape is a digital game based on the theme of “scaping”. For me, “to scape” from something or someone necessarily involves anxiety, as well as certain movement from particular objects or subjects to “safe” or “desired” environments. Scaping means moving with the objective of reaching a space where those objects or subjects do not longer exist or bother you and where that initial anxiety is dissipated. Procrastinate and Scape tries to convey a situation in which the player can experience the feelings that “scaping” from something entails. The game posses a tone of irony, as the action of scaping is symbolized by a college student who “avoids” daily assignments -as well as the stress that comes with them- to reach the peaceful state brought by the weekend. In this way, the player is represented by a student who tries to avoid or escape from “assignments” throughout the period of one week with the objective of being able to make it to the weekend without being “hit” by assignments.

 

My initial intention was to create a game that simulated the overwhelming feeling that college assignments bring to students, as well as the constant desire of escaping from them and getting to the weekend. As I was unsure about my possibilities for game design, I thought about the specific features of my game as I discovered the things I was able to create with JavaScript. I decided to set the screen as the space of the game, the student as a purple square (to convey an NYUAD narrative), and the assignments as bigger, white squares. My original idea was to have an “all-nighter” as the final goal for the player because I thought the only way in which students could be saved from a day of procrastination was a hard night.

 

After receiving feedback for my proposal, I changed the time-frame of the game’s space from one day to a whole week. Therefore, I also changed the goal from an all-nighter to a weekend. This variation made a lot of sense to me because I realized the initial proposal was confusing. With the objective of reaching to the weekend, the feeling of the play would change from avoiding the fact of inevitably getting to a “greater evil” by avoiding minor ones, to really escaping from all responsibilities in order to truly reach a rewarding and peaceful state.

 

While changing the meaning of the game was simple, I faced some challenges when trying to transform my ideas into workable code. The major ones were related to how the assignments moved and how that movement affected the meaning of the game. I wanted the assignments to gradually and continually appear on the screen until the student reached the final objective. However, in my final version of the game, the player reached a point in which no more assignments needed to be avoided – some players noticed this problem during the playtest and waited until the assignments stopped appearing for crossing the whole “week” without any inconvenience. I also asked myself about the game’s feedback for the player when being hit by an assignment, and what would that even mean. I decided to make the student “disappear” when colliding with the assignments, yet not with the meaning of “death”. I tried to transmit the feeling of imposing a re-start of the game and thus the re-start of another week and a challenge of not receiving the stress of new assignments. While unrealistic, I thought it was fun to make it that way. Furthermore, it was a challenge to find the right “speeds” for the assignments, so that the game would be both enjoyable and neither too easy or difficult.

 

After testing the game in class, observing how others played my game, and receiving their comments, the following changes were added. First, I included color feedback for the player once the student reached the weekend, as the square changed from purple to red. The change of color tried to relate to the changes of mood a student face when getting into the weekend, and in the case of my game, getting into the weekend without having done any assignment during the week. Second, I included a new level with increased difficulty by increasing the speed at which the assignments move. Lastly, I restricted the backward movement for the player, as in real life student can’t go “back” in time. This change helped me imitate the movement of the player through the mechanics of my game. There were other suggestions I would have liked to include such as the addition of text, the creation of a button to restart the game without reloading the page, and the implementation of more levels. Nevertheless, time and knowledge on Java-Script prevented me from implementing these features.

 

Overall, the process of game design evolved from the idea of wanting to transmit the feelings of anxiety and relief related to “scape” to transmitting them through a video game with crazy assignments going all over the place. As discussed on the Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, video games can be studied as material, software and cultural artifacts at the same time. For Olli Sotamaa, all video games need to be examined as material and software artifacts as they have historicity and develop rules with meaning through a digital interface. My game is an artifact as it can be played on a computer with a working screen and its mechanisms have been developed through JavaScript code. In addition, Procrastinate and Scape is a cultural artifact because it carries embedded ideas related to the life of college students. Its meaning is particularly related to the anxiety brought by often overwhelming amounts of assignments and responsibilities that need to be finished in a week, and the relief that comes with the weekend. Also, the game is a cultural artifact because it was socially shaped and produced with constant feedback and comments from the professor, friends, and classmates.

Code:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NUnNEoScauWuik2MSHk6iJUERzJSsVUB

In 2016, Pokemon celebrated its 20^th anniversary, a testament to its cultural stamina that spans across generations. Though my analysis focuses on Pokemon Black, a game created for the Nintendo 3DS, I mention the enduring influence of Pokemon as a testament to its timeless design that continues creating meaning for its players with each subsequent release. Pokemon Black improves upon past Pokemon game design and creates meaningful play through the story it tells, the attention to detail, and the potential for free movement.

Within the boundaries of the handheld device, the player becomes a teenage Pokemon trainer who leaves their small town to explore the Unova region and become a Pokemon master. Through the course of the game, the player catches Pokemon and trains them through turn-based battles with other characters or players to eventually defeat the Elite Four and become Unova’s reigning Champion. On their way, they encounter Team Plasma, the story’s antagonist force who introduce the concept of Pokemon liberation from trainers. Their leader, the antihero N, opposes the status quo of trainers owning and using Pokemon, thus opposing the world’s ideals. N fights for his truth and, through the course of the story and his interactions with the player, he learns instead that many Pokemon and trainers deeply care for each other and accepts a new truth: he must learn from others more.

In this sense, Pokemon Black is a reminder of the importance of tolerance and remembering that the world isn’t so black and white. In this world within the game, the player starts with one level 1 Pokemon and through hard work, trains to become the best trainer in the region: the Champion of Unova. The player’s best friend, an NPC named Bianca, also starts off with a similar goal, but finds that she is more suited towards research. In this regard, Pokemon Black is a powerful message about defining your own niche through hard work and that it is okay to be independent of society’s ideals. Through having a powerful underlying story, Pokemon Black makes players emotionally invested in the game, motivating them to continue on in the story, save the world from the clutches of Team Plasma, and become the Champion.

The story is further emphasized through the attention to detail in the game design. The general aesthetics of the game foster a sense of journey. Pokemon Black was created for the Nintendo 3DS; thus, the graphics depart from the 2D sprites of the Game Boy games I grew up playing and result in richer, more life-like landscapes that can be differentiated from each other, emphasizing the motif of leaving home for the first time and exploring the world.  Each city has its own distinct features and culture, from the sprawling metropolis of Castelia City to the mining port of Driftveil. As you travel, the camera angles change to create a dynamism that prevents losing interest in running on the same path for an extended period of time. Just when I felt like I was losing interest in walking, an NPC gave me running shoes. Just when I was losing interest in running around, I received a bike, and later, the ability to fly to cities. These little details prevented me from losing interest in the game. Additionally, the game aesthetics play close attention to detail, heightening how realistic the game is and making the game more absorbing. For instance, moving a bookshelf also makes the books knock over.

The game also provides feedback for every action—bumping into an object will eject a ‘beep’ while winning a gym badge will reward the player with a burst of music and an overlay placing the badge into a case. Every item or Pokemon you collect can be used for the rest of the game. Losing a Pokemon battle forces you to flee to the last visited Pokemon center and pay out cash. Winning a gym badge allows you to progress in the game. Having actions imbued with consequences make the play more meaningful as the player becomes invested in each action. The game also encourages players to interact with their friends within the Pokemon world. For instance, some Pokemon can only evolve through trade, incentivizing the player to connect with another. There is also player vs player functionality in which one can battle their friends using a wifi connection, an instance of game design leveraging the technological platform.

What sets Pokemon apart from other RPG games is the element of choice within its constraints—each player can have six Pokemon to battle, and each Pokemon knows four moves, thus instilling a necessity for strategy within those limitations on resources. Additionally, the player has the choice of whether to catch a Pokemon or not or to buy an item or not, thus giving them the freedom over which objects they collect. Additionally, the game is designed so that the player advances city to city and earns eight gym badges and becomes a better trainer. If the player tries to travel outside the route, he/she will be stopped by an NPC or a natural obstacle and be unable to advance geographically until they earn a gym badge from the city. Then, players travel to the next city and in the process, battle other trainers and encounter wild Pokemon to gain the skill to defeat another gym leader. As the players advance through the game, the levels of the Pokemon they encounter also increase, so players gain more Experience Points to level up their Pokemon. In defeating gym leaders, players feel a sense of accomplishment that makes the overall goal of becoming the Champion more achievable.

 

With its powerful story, attention to detail, and large freedom of movement, Pokemon Black is a highly absorbing game that I found myself playing for much more than four hours. I do not care to admit how much time I’ve played Pokemon in the past two weeks, but these elements made me have a strong desire to finish the story and achieve the objective of becoming Unova’s Champion.

 

Cooking Craze is a free, downloadable game which name gives us a hint on its content and what and its “play” opportunities available for players. I am not a person who spends a lot of time playing digital games, so I took this situation as an advantage to really observe and experience the game. Through the following paragraphs, I will aim to describe my play experience and analyze the space of play to which I was transported when playing, the mechanics and rules of the game, and the way in which it creates meaning, among other factors.

 

 

Once first diving into the space of play, I was transported to a digital world with different cities. The game starts with the first city on the map, New York. Each city counts with 100 levels of difficulty, and after those are achieved, more cities are unlocked. At the bottom right corner of the home section, there is a world’s icon. When clicked, the game transports you to another setting where the next city icon -Paris- is displayed. There are options to go back to the home screen after exploring each of the game spaces.

 

 

The main space, however, is found on what we could call the “home screen”, in my case, it was the city of New York with different restaurants. The aspect of the game is not minimalistic, but rather the different spaces available in Cooking Craze are very detailed and elaborated. I would say the game has a colorful, bright, and vibrant aesthetic. It looks a lot like other “cooking” games available on the internet. Also, the background music is always the same and becomes annoying after a while -although you can turn it off in the settings section which is symbolized with a screw at the bottom right of the home screen. To some extent, the game’s aspect has excessive features and “information” which makes it difficult for the inexperienced player to understand how the game works, especially at the beginning of the play experience. However, the main objective of the game becomes clear easily as you interact with the home screen. The game consists of different cities with different restaurants and levels. Once you pass a particular amount of levels, you move to another restaurant, and each restaurant sells different products related to fast service. The main objective for the player is satisfying the customers’ desires by preparing the ordered food or drink items as fast as possible without making mistakes. Good performances are translated into receiving incentives or rewards such as coins, “spoons”, and comment cards once each level is achieved.

 

Fulfilling the main objective of the game allows the player to fulfill others. For instance, when earning coins and “spoons”, the player can “upgrade” the restaurant by buying new products or other features that make it easier for the player to perform actively. Once higher levels of difficulty are reached, upgrades are necessary to keep up with the game, as they help you cook more efficiently. The new features consist of new lives, extra-time for achieving each level’s specific goals (i.e., getting a specific number of coins and spoons), or “cupcakes” that help to keep the customers happy while the player is preparing their meals. Other objectives include fulfilling specific achievements (such as “Dream Kitchen”, completing all the upgrades in one restaurant), passing from restaurant to restaurant within different levels, and ultimately having worked in all of the cities’ restaurants (having started with lower levels of difficulty and finished with higher ones) and start over again in the next city.

 

   

 . 

 

As each restaurant sells different products, the player has to learn how to prepare them once the experience at each restaurant begins. At the beginning of each experience, the player receives a short tutorial on the preparation of new products. However, the interaction the player has with the digital device where the game is being played is similar among the restaurants. As such, the first restaurant sells donuts and shakes, so to prepare them, the player has to pay attention to the customers who arrive, and their specific desires would appear on bubbles next to them. Then the player starts cooking. To cook a donut the player taps on the cooking plate, then on the sauce or topping, and later on the tray so that the customer receives the order. Similarly, to prepare a shake the player taps on the machine and when it’s ready, it taps again on the finished shake. All the products that are being “cooked” or prepared show a little analog clock next to them which determines the time that the product needs to get ready. Also, customers enter with a green bar that slowly decreases until reaching the color orange or red -this shows their waiting time. Angry customers can leave and also food can be overcooked -if this happens it will be wasted, and the player will lose time and points. Points are earned by satisfying the customers’ desires. In this way, we could say the objects or resources of the game are of course a digital device that allows you to download the game. Once “inside” the game space, the game’s objects are various and diverse, and are conformed by the cities, the city where you are playing, the restaurants, the chef who appears and gives you the instructions or congratulates you every time you pass a level, the different machines and materials available at each restaurant to prepare the final outcomes, the customers, the section for “upgrades”, and the rewards you get when achieving objectives.

 

As the first levels are relatively easy and slow, the player is in a way socialized into the mechanics or rules behind the scenes with the help of short tutorials. You learn how you required to tap on the pan for the product to appear on it and start cooking itself, instead of dragging the donut or hamburger to the pan. Then you have to tap on the same product so that it appears on the tray. The toppings work a bit different, as they require you to tap on them so they appear on the product that is on the tray instead of tapping on the product so the topping appears on it. The shakes are more straightforward, as you are only required to tap on the machine that prepares them. Once the products are ready, you have to tap on it. This feature forbids the player to choose the customer who will receive the finalized product. The system assumes that the one who has waited for the longest time is the one who deserves the product first, constraining the authority of the player to choose according to each situation.

 

The tapping mechanism restraints movement and also brings some “magic” to the game, as the player cannot move the products around the kitchen, but rather only tap on the available materials and machines so that they automatically appear or move -however this “movement” is not seen on the screen. Although the player is not responsible for these movements, it has to pay attention so that the cooking pan doesn’t burn the products. By giving the player this freedom, the game also creates a penalization that comes whenever a product is burnt. As such, the player has to pay attention not to “put” more products on the pans than trays are available at the moment. The player has no option to take out the cooked product from the pan to a place other than the trays. When a product is burnt, the screen shows text that indicates that “you should not let food get burnt and wasted”. However, the sender of the message is not specified. While playing, I assumed that it was the chef that “helped” me throughout the game, and that when those texts appeared, the chef (my boss) was scolding me. These moments were weird because after playing the game for several hours, I created a connection to it that made me feel negligent every time I wasted food. It was not clear how I needed to proceed with burnt food, as the pan and the product on it became black and the game did not allow me to continue cooking on that pan. I assumed I had to tap on it, however, as I did not see changes, I just waited for a couple of seconds until the pan was “magically” cleared. Also, it seems that the customers always have the exact value of the product, as the player does not have to give change. In fact, the player does not “see” and apparently neither receives visual money or coins.

 

Inside the play space of the restaurants, the player cannot move the trays, neither the cooking pans or other machines. Similarly, the player cannot move the toppings. Basically, the space of play has certain boundaries that keep the player from moving anything in the kitchens. The only thing the player can do is “tap” and pay attention to what is happening on the screen. The player (that at the moment is the restaurant’s employee) has to seek strategies that allow it to prepare the products required by the customers as fast as possible within the space’s boundaries. Whereas the player needs to play with “time”, the player has no authority over it. The player cannot open the restaurant and neither decide when to close it because the closing time indicates the end of the available time for play. In this sense, the space of play inside the restaurants is particularly rigid. On the home screen (conformed by the place of the city you are at), the space certainly changes. Although the player cannot play the next level without completing the current one, players have the freedom to navigate through all the accomplished levels at any moment and in any order. To do so, the player has to tap on the levels’ numbers. Also, the player has the option of navigating through the whole city by moving a finger or fingers in different directions.

 

Overall, the play gives the player some freedom for movement, but also provides various constraints. As a player, I was excited by the possibility of navigating through the city and having the opportunity to “travel” to other ones while cooking in different restaurants. The possibility of cooking a variety of products also thrilled me, but I would have wanted to have more freedom in choosing the products that I needed to prepare. Another remarkable point is that the game gives the option to buy “spoons” with real money. Having more spoons can help the player with upgrades and in overall improving its chances for achieving the game’s objectives. In this way, not being able to buy with real money could be seen as a “boundary” between the digital and physical context of the game, as if you cannot buy spoons, you have fewer chances to “win” each level.

 

Four buttons are always present in the bottom right corner of the home screen: a “cart” for either buying boosts with spoons or spoons with real money, “achievements” for following the completed and uncompleted achievements, the “world map” which was previously described, and “settings”. On settings, the player can decide on activating the sound or music of the game and whether to connect with “friends” via Facebook or not. I did not utilize this option for personal reasons.

 

The digital context of the game consists of the game’s “world”: the different cities and restaurants among the cities -specifically their kitchens and front desks. However, the game can be played anywhere and at any time if it is downloaded to a phone and the phone is charged. The game is both creative and destructive, as it gives you the opportunity to create a limited amount of pre-designed products and design restaurants by upgrading them. However, the player can decide to leave products burnt, make the customers feel unsatisfied and angry, and to make the restaurant fail by not updating the machines. This could happen if the player decides to keep the coins for himself instead of spending them to make the restaurant better, as the player may realize -as I did- that the restaurant doesn’t belong to him or her. In a way, you are investing in your boss’s or someone’s restaurant. The game is in a way appropriative because it does not allow the player to do other things on the phone while playing.  The game is also disruptive because when deciding to play, the player stops anything else he or she was doing with the phone. The game can also disrupt the real-life context, as the player can get too immersed in the game. Considering the large number of levels, cities and therefore possibilities of play, the player can spend hours and hours sitting with the phone without paying attention to daily life. As the game is divided between levels, the player has a sense of “winning” after achieving the objectives of each one of them. However, I cannot size the time needed to “win” the whole game by winning all the levels from all cities. In fact, I do not know if that is even possible.

 

The game creates meaning by transforming the objects on the screen in a city with restaurants. The objects by themselves may lack sense, yet together they create an opportunity for play. The music, colors and physical design of the game immerse the player into a new “world” where the player can work at different restaurants. The variation between restaurants, levels, products (as well as their upgrades), and the constant rewards, have the intention to ignite in the player a sense of authority and freedom. As the player plays, it becomes better, and as it becomes better, it generates different and better opportunities for play. If we connect the game to real life, by playing, players can practice following instructions efficiently, as well as feel the pressure of working with the time constraints that also exist “outside” the game. In a way, the player can develop a sense of empathy for restaurants’ employees, by experiencing the difficulties they face in their daily lives.

 

Marvel’s Spiderman is a game where you, the player gets to step into the shoes of Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) and fight against the crimes happening in New York City. The game gives the player the experience of all aspects of Parker’s life – his personal life with Aunt May, Mary Jane and Dr. Octavius alongside his life as Spiderman – fighting Martin Li’s demons, Shocker, and the evil Tycoon Wilson Fisk among others. The game is played entirely in third-person, which means you get to see Spidey’s back the entire game. The gameplay is structured as a series of missions that lets the player advance in the storyline of the game. However, the player also has the opportunity to swing around the city and engage in multiple side objectives which unlock new moves, collectibles, and advanced power ups. The main objective is to uncover the root of the vast network of crimes happening in the city and take down the network, piece by piece. The game is set in New York City, and you are free to roam around the entire island of Manhattan. They even the buildings of New York University, with Washington Square Park and everything! (only that it’s called Empire State University in the game).

 

The mechanics and the overall theme of the game makes one very feel “heroic”. The creators of Spiderman have created the perfect web-swinging mechanic. One could swing around for hours, just watching Spiderman dive and jump across the city. The battle mechanics have never been this good in any Spiderman game. Players can engage in deadly hand-to-hand combat, and also have the experience of using spidey’s various skills, like Spider-Sense to dodge. Throwing webs at goons and tossing them at each other allow for more diverse combat. The game also provides very good audio and haptic feedbackThe best feature, however is the fact that you can use different kind of webs to achieve different goals. For example, while an electric web would temporarily stun your enemies, a web-bomb and web everyone in vicinity. Every player can have a unique experience playing this game. While some may choose to advance quickly and complete all missions, others may take their time to explore New York City as Spiderman while taking down thugs, clicking pictures of monuments, finding Peter’s old backpacks and taking pictures of historic buildings. While it isn’t explicitly stated, as a “good” superhero, you aren’t allowed to destroy propery or attack civilians, even if you try. If you do feel evil and toss a fire hydrant at a random dude on the street, he is quite likely to yell at you, but the mechanics of the game do not show him as being hurt from the attack and the object (fire hydrant) disappears. Players can also change Spiderman’s appearance by crafting different suits with tokens found around the city. Each suit has its own special power and a unique design.

 

The game is rightly created for consoles. A PS4 controller has two joysticks, arrow keys, 4 action keys and additional keys on the back which allow more control. I can confidently say that I felt as though I had complete control of the character on my screen. I was bounded of course by the constraints of reality (I couldn’t jump through buildings, dive into the ground, etc.). This provides a very realistic (if you consider swinging around in web shooters realistic [i do]) experience. A major factor of the game’s exceptional quality would be the graphics. I played this game with a projector, on a screen as big as the one we use in class, and the experience was completely phenomenal. I could really feel like I was Spiderman for brief moments of the gameplay because it is that engaging and that realistic. Another major reason for the likability of the game is that it is based on a character that is known by everyone. I, for one, grew up watching spiderman and dreaming about slinging around my city in web-shooters.

 

While many players play the game to experience the joy of being Spiderman, they also get to live the life of Peter Parker. The game explores the nature of his complicated relationship with Mary Jane, his love for Aunt May and his goofiness in general. Overall, Marvel’s Spiderman is a wholesome experience where you live the life of Peter Parker, part scientist, part super-hero. As a player, you get to author your own story and solve mysterious crimes that are happening all over the island of Manhattan. You’re free to explore, save citizens, find hidden items, jump off buildings and experience – even if it is for a very brief moment – what it might feel like to be the coolest Superhero, Spiderman. 

The game that I chose for this assignment is the mobile/tablet game “2048”. It was created in 2014 by a 19-year old in a single weekend as a test to see if he could make a game from scratch.

 

2048 is a single player sliding block puzzle game. The game-board has a square grid with tiles. The player can choose the size of this grid before starting the game. The original game had only one option for the grid size (4×4) however several versions have been developed now and the possible sizes in the version that I played were 3×3, 4×4, 5×5, 6×6 and 8×8. The game starts with the player being given two tiles at random positions in the grid. Both these tiles have a value of 2. By swiping through the screen, the player can move the tiles and when two tiles land on the same grid, they merge together. On merging, their values are added up and they are replaced by a single tile with the sum as it’s value. This new tile takes the place where the other two tiles had collided in the grid. The objective of the game is to keep adding up these tiles and reaching the number of 2048 on one of the tiles. Once the player reaches 2048, they have achieved the objective of the game and won. But they can still continue the game and go further than 2048. There is also a scoreboard at the top that keeps the score for the player. The score increases by the value of the new tile whenever a new tile is created. An interesting point is that even though there is a score tracker, I had never given any attention to it till now. So one could say that from the creator’s perspective, the objective of the game is to get the highest score. But from the player’s perspective, the objective is to get a tile that has a value of 2048.

 

Some more specifics about the game play are that the tiles also change colour with a change in their value. As the number on the tile increases, the shade of the tile gets darker which makes it easier for the player to get a sense of the values of tiles that they have in the game instead of having to read the number on the tiles again and again. A tile can only increase in value and not decrease. Only two tiles with the same number/value can get added up to form a new tile with a higher value on collision. The player simply uses a finger to swipe in the direction that he wants the tiles to move. However, the player cannot move single tiles in isolation. If the player swipes left, all the tiles will move towards the left is there is any empty space towards their left. There is no minimum or maximum number of spaces that the tile can move; as long as there is space in the adjacent square, the tile will occupy it if the player has swiped in that direction. The tiles, however, cannot go out of the grid. The player is also allowed to swipe in all four directions- up, down, left and right.

 

Even though the game has such structured rules and procedures, it still does not limit the players movements in terms of the number of swipes or direction of swipes, I had a lot of opportunity to be able to go astray from the actual objective. For instance, since the game does not actually stop you from swiping in a direction that would harm your play, I would sometimes just swipe in any direction without thinking of how it would affect my ability to reach 2048. Another instance is building games within the game like swiping in just one direction to see where that leads. The game’s structure and nature is such that once you start swiping, you start swiping at a very fast speed unconsciously and you only realise it when you lose the game because of that speed. This means that the player is swiping at such a fast speed that they do not estimate the outcome of their next move and end up getting an outcome that is not the most efficient one which, a lot of times, also ends up with the player losing the game without reaching the objective of 2048.

 

This ability to modify the procedure of the game brings the focus on the player. Originally, the game is controlling the user by giving them random tiles to achieve an objective defined by the game. However, now it is the user that is deciding the objective. For instance, if the user is only swiping in one direction, the objective of the game has changed. The new objective is: observe what will happen to the tiles and get a tile-value as high as possible by only swiping left. So here, even though the game is restricting the user in terms of which tiles they get and the limited number of spaces in the grid, the player has now modified the game and the focus is on the player and his new objective rather than the game’s original objective which I thought was very interesting, considering how often it happens because it is so easy to do.

 

A possible reason for this happening so often could be the fact that the game does not control how the player is using his unlimited moves. There is no inherent-rule in the game that you cannot swipe in only one direction. Or that you only have a limited number of moves for each direction. The flexible and open nature of the game makes this modification possible. Therefore, even though the game has a very well-defined structure, it is still very prone to being used to create a whole new structure within.

For this assignment I have chosen to play a mobile game recommended by my peers called “Episode – Choose Your Story”. It is a decision-oriented narrative game that is widely popular among young people as it features storytelling collaborations with Hollywood and allows a player to potentially be the creator of a story as well. However, the main attraction of this game experience is the ability to make decision on behalf of a character or your alter-ego in rather dramatic, twisted and funny situations. In this game, your own choices determine its flow and outcome.

 

The app platform offers a wide range of plots for a user to choose to explore. From my observation, the content is mostly centered around modern day relationship drama for young adults. On their website, the creators of the “Episode” claim that their product is designed for a new generation that grew up with the Internet, smartphones and tablets, for whom passive entertainment such as film and television is no longer exciting. They are promoting interactive and immersive entertainment where the user is the active participant and, in a sense, a creator. I respect their idea behind the app, however, I did not like its implementation. I have chosen this game because I have seen too many annoying PG-16 ads online and I have heard from my peers that the game is stupid and inappropriate. Yet people keep downloading, playing and even investing money into “Episode” for the same reason it is also frowned upon by others.

Considering Miguel Sicart’s conceptualization of play as a form of expression, I can surely state that “Episode” provides this opportunity for a player to express who he/she is, is not or would like to be. Since most of the content, I am afraid, is rather dirty and controversial, the decisions made by the user are motivated by either their genuine desires or pure curiosity that does not reflect what they would actually do in real life. To provide a better understanding of what I am describing, I am attaching some screenshots of my play experience.

 

I started my “Episode” journey by choosing one of the two very popular plots that I assume each new player is offered to try out. I was instantly thrown off by its explicit narration. The characters were highly sexualized and the decisions that were offered for a player to choose were designed in a way that tests one’s decency. Such an experience makes me think of this game as a bubble in which you are free to play as you wish. Thus, the game reflects us and our society (as argued by Sutton-Smith), specifically, its vices and darkest desires. The controversies behind each decision define the carnivalesque nature of the game as it explores the limits of your own bravery behind a mask of a fictional character.

The general rules are quite simple and the whole experience is very intuitive. The mechanism behind the game does not seem complicated, since the app provides a certain range of pre-written story lines that the user navigates. The game begins with character customization. The user can enter his/her or a made-up name and change the looks of the default character, which can provide a great sense of personal investment into the game, if you make your character look like you. However, I was quite disappointed with the 2D graphics and the smoothness of animations that created an impression of the game being rather “cheap”. This observation reminded me of Chris Crawford’s notion that graphics can be the game’s biggest flaw. However, as I moved to another plot, my opinion shifted a bit.

 

The first story offered by the app made me feel rather awkward, so I browsed the catalog and chose what seemed to be the most innocent plot line and that was “Pitch Perfect: In Big Treble”. This story was created in a collaboration with the widely famous comedy film and the product included most of the original characters. This is where the designers did a good job at portraying real actors in a recognizable way. This particular storyline and a few others (other Hollywood or celebrity collaborations) reminded of a modern argument that games are an essential part of our pop culture (Jenkins, Upton, Sicart).

Throughout hours of playing, my character Alex joined an all-girl acapella group in a university, found a nemesis, developed a crush on a customizable male character, questioned her sexuality after meeting a customizable female character, fought with her parents and even performed a song only in her shower towel. The situations I found myself/her in were mostly unbelievably ridiculous, however, I must admit that “Episode” does get you hooked. Although there is no real way to lose this game, a certain fear follows the user – a fear of making a wrong choice. For this reason, I believe the game does have this balance between creation and destruction, because the user gets to “write” the story, yet also faces the risks of ruining it.

The main disappointment was revealed after playing the game for a couple of hours. In order to continue the story and move on to the next chapter the user has to “pay” a “pass”. If you do not have any left, a new pass will be given to you in 3 hours. This trick makes the gamer hooked to the game, forcing one to wait for the moment to be able to go back to the world of fiction. What is more, the game also has “gems” which allow you to “pay” for a certain decision. For example, my character had the opportunity to listen to a friend’s advice but in order to follow it I had to spend 20 gems (which I did not have). This frustrated me as a user , because it took away the pleasure of playing my story the way I want. Luckily, the player gets one gem after completing a chapter of the story. Both passes and gems are available for purchase. Actual purchase. For real money. #capitalism

 .  

 

“Pitch Perfect” has 30 chapters and, in the 4-5 hours spent in this fictional world, I was not able to find out what is its outcome. In general, the play experience was quite entertaining and addicting, but I did feel like I could have spent my time in a better and a more productive way. Also, tapping on the screen for hours eventually felt monotonous and, therefore, a bit boring. These factors and the rather explicit content would not make me want to go back to playing “Episode”, yet it was certainly an interesting experience from an academic perspective of learning more about game design and nature of play.

The game I’m going to write about today is called The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It’s designed for the Nintendo GameCube and was created in 2002.

The main character of the game is called Link, a young boy who appears to be sleeping in the beginning of the game (and quite evidently in most other Zelda games). The game itself consists of a main quest, which is to complete various dungeons through puzzle and problem solving in order and then defeat the main antagonist, Ganondorf (who has taken Link’s sister and has held her prisoner along with some other young girls, and it just so happens that Zelda, the female protagonist, is one of the prisoners and later on helps you defeat him), and some side quests and extras that can be completed at any point during the game, given that you have the relevant items (a single item is found in each dungeon, so you will be able to collect items as you complete the dungeons).

An important thing to mention would be the game controls. Link can roll on the ground (and also perform other actions when the time is right) by pressing “A”, swing his sword with “B”, map various items to “X”, “Y”, “Z”, change the camera angle with “L”, “R”and “C”. It is important to note here that Link isn’t given a button for jumping, and that he automatically jumps when approaching a ledge, which seems to be a recurring attribute in many 3D Zelda games. Perhaps this is to make the game itself slightly more challenging.The game was probably going for a “chibi”or “cute” general aesthetic, since all the characters seem to be relatively small, with large eyes, this generally appeals to a wide range of audiences, from children to adults and across genders. In terms of mechanics, the game is an open-world and free-roam type of game. That is, you are allowed to visit and move around the universe this game is set in, however, you will need to go through with the main quest before being allowed to play in certain locations in the universe (for example, you will only be able to play in head-stone island with the power bracelets. Without them, you would only be able to visit the island without playing in it). This was implemented to give the player a sense of freedom, but not too much freedom as the player still has some obligations in game, which is to finish the quests step-by-step. There are different types of enemies, such as keese (very annoying bats) and bosses that are quite region specific (Gohma, a large spider like boss which you battle in a volcanic cavern / Jalhalla, a collection of ghosts merged into one, battled in an abandoned or haunted temple). You are also not allowed to leave the universe, if you try to leave out of bounds, the King of Red Lions (your talking boat) will force you to turn around and sail in another direction.

The idea of free movement really brings a focus onto the player and the main character because the player is allowed to control link to go to wherever they please, given that the area is not out of bounds. Link is not completely bound by the rules of the game, but has to abide by some of the laws that have been implemented by the creator (e.g. no jumping by control, no traveling out of bounds, attack chickens in game at your own risk) which gives him human-like characteristics that we can relate to. In relation to this, the game is given a sense of meaning because the player has to complete several tasks before he gains the ability to continue with the game, which we can really see in our everyday lives (e.g. a child cannot learn how to run before walking), as well as the obvious sense of ethics and morality that the game preaches (the guy who brings darkness and injustices into the world is not exactly “good”, but the one who banishes the darkness is considered a hero). However, an important thing to note is that as you reach the end of the game, Ganondorf gives a little speech on his view of the world around him, and justifies why he did what he’s done, which again adds meaning to the game because more often than not, there are multiple sides of a single story, even though you end up defeating him anyway because it is played in the perspective of Link.

 

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D on Nintendo 3DS is a 2015 remaster of the original Majora’s Mask game which came out on the Nintendo 64 in 2000. It’s an Action/Adventure video game where the protagonist, Link, a young hero from the fantastical world of Hyrule, must fight Skull Kid, the antagonist. Link has to prevent him from bringing down the Moon on the strange world of Termina and destroy it. In this analysis, I will explore how the aesthetics and mechanisms of the game combine to convey a consistent theme of urgency such as to create a unique play experience.

 

Solving a puzzle sound effect

 

To defeat Skull Kid, Link has to get the help of four giants. They are awakened and rallied to Link’s cause by clearing their respective dungeons. The player explores the 3D world of Termina moving around with the joystick, and fights all sorts of enemies – giant spiders, creatures made of darkness, carnivorous flowers, anthropomorphic jelly, etc. Link uses a variety of weapons including bombs, arrows, and a blade using buttons X, Y and B and the touchscreen. In addition, Link can find different magical masks, which are used to transform into different creatures – a merman who breathes underwater, a golem who destroys path-blocking boulders, etc – which unlocks previously unexplorable areas, and gives the player new playstyle options as each transformation fights and moves differently. Finally, Link can also learn songs to play on his ocarina, using the buttons of the 3DS as notes. Playing the songs changes the environment around Link, calls his horse, calls giants, etc. All of these elements – the masks, the songs and other items – need to be used creatively in the dungeons to navigate and fight the dungeon boss. The process requires a lot of wits from the player, but the victorious sound effect that comes with solving a puzzle always fills the player with the satisfaction of having made well-deserved progress – a proof of good game design, where the challenges are not so bad that they are unsolvable, and provide immediate feedback for the player’s success.

 

Link seems to be in pain as he transforms using a mask

 

But besides the masks and songs, there is one mechanic that sets this game apart from any other Adventure/Action game (or any game for that matter); if you play for more than 3 days in-game time (where one hour amounts to one real-life minute), Skull Kid succeeds in bringing down the moon, the world ends, and you lose. But 72 minutes of playing is not enough to defeat him, it is not even enough to clear the first dungeon! There is though one way to prevent that; playing the Song of Time on Link’s ocarina, and going back to the start of the first day. Doing this gives the player more time, but also resets most of the progress made so far, including losing all money and items – excluding a few key ones such as masks – hoarded. This gives a strong sense of urgency to the play experience; the player must at all times think of how best to spend their precious time and maximize their efforts so that they do not go to waste at the end of the cycle. They have to learn X song before the 3 days end so that they can use it to unlock a dungeon Y at day 1, which they must finish at the end of day 3, so that they can directly confront the dungeon boss at day 1, etc. This urgent feeling is reinforced by various aesthetic elements of the game; first there is the creepy human-faced moon that is always looming, and gets a little closer and bigger every hour. Then there is the music that gets faster and darker as there is less time left. The environments and models, with their purple hues and edgy designs, have a masquerade and dreamlike (or rather nightmare-like) quality to them which adds to the apocalyptic tone. The game verges on horror whenever Link transforms by putting on a mask, which distorts in a grimace and screams horrifyingly. There is also a sense of tragedy to the game, as the player gets to learn the routine of the denizens of Termina, how they gradually come to accept the imminent apocalypse through the days and make preparations for it in an endless cycle. In one portion of the game, the player works to bring Spring back to a village trapped in perpetual winter. The saved inhabitants are thankful to Link and applaud his efforts. It is therefore particularly crushing to let them down as the winter will still be there at the next cycle, and that the inhabitants will not even remember Link’s involvement.

 

 

Yet, there is comfort, too, in the game. Some changes that Link makes to Termina do matter, and they survive the reset of the timeline. For example, Link meets at some point a dying musician. Link lays the man’s soul to rest by playing a special song, and, at his request, he buries him with his guitar and a special epitaph. The moment is touching, and leaves a mark on the player as the grave will remain there 3 days earlier, a somewhat morbid yet hopeful sign that Link’s efforts are not after all in vain. The game is also full of sidequests where the player has to interact with villagers at specific times of the day to solve their problems. For example, one quest involves reuniting two lovers who want to get married before the impending apocalypse. While these stories are undone with each new cycles, they nevertheless leave an impact, particularly when the rewards are masks, which act almost as souvenirs, reminders of what matters. The game creates meaning in the masks and further motivates the player to save the world, as they get to know the people of Termina and grow attached to them, even if they might not remember them. Majora’s Mask is a game about inevitability and despair, but also about hope and triumph over impossible odds.