Homework 13: Story and Indirect Control

Chapter 15

1. A goal with no obstacles is not worth pursuing. 

True.

2. What is the relationship between the main character and the goal? Why does the character care about it? 

The goal of the main character is not to starve to death. The character cares about this because they would like to stay alive. The player achieves this goal by eating humans.

3. What are the obstacles between the character and the goal? 

The heath of the character is an obstacle. It goes down as long as the character is not eating humans. The terrain is also an obstacle because it is not flat, the humans hide and get stuck in places and are more difficult to find.

4. Do the obstacles gradually increase in difficulty? If yes, how? 

Eventually there will be different levels in the game and each level will have more complicated terrain. This terrain will give the humans more places to hide.

Also we are considering having the health go down faster in higher levels of the game.

Both of these aspects will make the obstacles gradually increase in difficulty.

5. Great stories often involve the protagonist transforming to overcome the obstacle. Does your protagonist transform? 

The protagonist does not transform throughout the game. Due to the nature of our game, this does not apply.

6. How is the game world simpler than the real world? 

The game world is simplier than the real world because there are significantly less rules in the game world. In the game world all you need to do is eat humans, something that is not acceptable in the real world. The player also does not need to deal with foes or any of the other unpleasantries of the real world.

7. What kind of transcendent power do you give to the player? 

The player is the most powerful being around. The player can eat a whole human with just one bite and the sight of him makes humans run away screaming. The player is the only character than can jump. The only thing in the player’s way of accomplishing his goals is terrain.  

8. What is the weirdest element in the game story? 

The weirdest element of the game story is probably that it is played from the perspective of what is commonly thought of as the bad person. Normally you play a human trying to stop an alien, but in this case you are the alien.

9. How do you ensure that the weirdest thing does not confuse or alienate the player? 

This element will not confuse or alienate the player because the player has always wondered about being a villain. Even so, from the perspective of the alien it is just survival of this fittest.

This casual attitude towards eating humans combined with the game aesthetic gives the game a humorous feel.

10. Will the players be interested in the game story? Why? 

The game story is humorous and explains what the player is doing and why. Players will be interested in this because it gives context to what they are doing. It also clarifies any confusion created by the aesthetics.

Because the story has humor, players will want to share it with their friends. Perhaps one day there will be a multiplayer in which the aliens were travelling together and then have to fight to get the most humans. But that will happen in due time.

Chapter 16

1. In what sense does the player have freedom of action? Does the player "feel" free at these times? 

The player is free to move around the terrain and free to choose which aliens to eat. People who have played our game seem to feel free. There is no order in which the player has to each the humans, so long as they eat them. There are very few constraints on the player.  

2. What are the constraints imposed on the players? Do they feel constrained? 

The player does not feel constrained. The player has to eat humans before their health gets to zero, but each time they eat a human the health goes up a little which gives them more time to find more humans.

3. Ideally, what would you like your players to do (lens #72)

Ideally the players would eat all of the humans by navigating  the terrain and jumping on/over objects quickly.

4. Can you design your interface to "force" the player to do what you (the designer) wish him/her to do? 

Our interface is designed to force the player to want to eat humans. There is a counter telling you how many humans are left in the terrain and a health bar that reflects how often you eat humans. There is also a score that reflects how quickly you eat humans. 

Homework 12:State

I created a state diagram for the random encounter fights from the perspective of the player.  This diagram demonstrates all of the states of the player and their outcomes.

As soon as the random encounter begins, the players first state is walking. Once they player reaches the alien they can either kick or punch the alien. If the player kicks, then the alien jumps and attacks. If the player punches, the alien blocks, then attacks.

The second chart describes another idea we had for random encounters. We realized the fighting might be a little ambitious so we contemplated having other challenges in the random encounters. This diagram shows the states of a random encounter where the objective is to cage in aliens. The player has an infinite amount of walls and places them on the ground. When an alien hits one of the walls he changes directions.

Both of these diagrams attempt to clarify what verbs happen in different scenarios in our game.

After creating the fighting state chart it became apparent to us that the fighting might be more than we can handle, so the second chart seems to be a more plausible alternative.  

edit: these charts no longer apply to our game, because it no longer has random encounters. But when I made the charts and wrote the assignment they were still relevant. These diagrams were helpful because they made us realize that our original game idea was not great. 

Homework 10: Balance

There are 12 major types of balance in a game. Let us discuss them! 

The twelve types of balances

1.       Fairness

o   Symmetrical/assymetrical games

o   It seems like games can only be symmetrical if there are multi-player

o   Our game is assymetrical because different aliens that the player will fight are more powerful than the player and the player has to find a clever way to defeat them.

o   While the aliens will be more powerful, they might have some glaring weakness that the player can exploit to defeat the alien.

§  An example of this is an alien that does a lot of damage when it hits, but it cannot jump.

o   This is balanced because one side (the player or the aliens) does not have the advantage the entire time. 

2.       Challenge v success

·         There is a way to solve each puzzle, even if it looks challenging at first. The puzzles do not necessarily increase in difficulty; they are just different types of puzzles so it is difficult to compare them.

·         The aliens that the player fights do increase in difficulty; which makes the game harder, but they are worth more points.

·         The player will be motivated by the potential for more points and items.

3.       Meaningful choices

·         We have considered allowing the player to choose between a couple of characters at the beginning. Each of the characters would have a different skill: one is faster, one is stronger, etc. however, we have not come to a conclusion on this idea.

·         The player also has the option to not solve any of the puzzles, but they would not get many rewards. In this way the game has triangularity. It is more risky to move around the level (and possibly running into aliens) and solve puzzles, but then the player gets more points and more items. It is less risky to not solve the puzzles, but then they do not get rewards.

4.       Skill v chance

·         I think our game has a good system for this. The puzzles are skill based because they involve creative thinking and minor skills like jumping and memory.

·         The random encounter fights are part chance because it is unknown when they will occur, but the actual alien fighting is skill. Although it does not involve much thought, the player should get better each time they fight an alien.

5.       Heads v. hands

·         Our game is about half heads and half hands. The player will need to use creative thinking to figure out how to maneuver the puzzles , but the random encounter fights will test the player’s dexterity. A level of skill will also be required to do the platform jumping puzzles because the player will need to time the jumps correctly.

6.       Competition vs cooperation

·         This does not apply to our game because our game is a single player game.

7.       Short vs long

·         It is hard to figure this lens out because nobody has test played our game yet.

·         we could add a time constraint to the tasks given by the Obama-bot and not completing them in the time limit would result in punishment.

·         If our game is too shot we could add more humans that need to be saved from each level, or make some of the puzzles more complex.

·         Hopefully we will know more about this balance once our game is more developed.

8.       Rewards

·         Our game uses several of the reward systems.

·         The Obama-bot will congratulate you when you complete a task such as a puzzle, finding a lost document or rescuing all of the humans in a level.

·         It would be exciting if there was also a noise that sounded when the player accomplished a specific task, but we have not discussed the music aspect of our game yet.

·         The player can only get to the next level through gateways. Once they complete a set of tasks in a level, they are teleported back to the main stage and from there can advance to the next level, not before.

·         The player will have the ability to cause more damage to the aliens they fight after they rescue a set number of humans during each level. There is also the option to be able to go faster for a short period of time if they accomplish a number of tasks. This reward will be given by the Obama-bot.

·         There is a point system that rewards points for fighting aliens, finding lost items, saving humans and completing puzzles. The number of points given depends on the speed at which the player completes each task.

9.       Punishment

·         I think the Obama-bot will be useful in this respect. For example, if the player does not complete a task, the robot would look disappointed.

·         There does not need to be a loss of points if the player does not complete a puzzle or loses a fight, but the lack of added points would motivate them to complete tasks and do better.

·         The punishment for losing a level (which happens when the player loses a fight) is ‘death’. This is not a terribly severe sentence because the character appears at the beginning of the level again or at the last save point. They also lose any powers they might have had.

10.   Freedom vs. controlled experience

·         The player has a lot of freedom in the game. They can walk around the level and choose whether or not they want to complete tasks and solve puzzles. They also have the option to choose what moves and combinations to use while fighting.

·         The experiences that are out of the control of the player are when the fights occur, which alien they fight, what items they get and which level they go to.

·         This is balanced because the player has a lot of freedom to explore and have fun, but not so much freedom that they would feel directionless and bored.

11.   Simple vs complex

·         There are a lot of opportunities to do things in our game, but I do not think that it is too complicated. There are not a bunch of rules to follow. The player explores the level and when they want more direction, they ask the Obama-bot what to do. When they ask he will give a task or suggest a puzzle.

·         This is balanced well because, there are enough things to do to keep the game interesting, but what needs to be done does not require many rules.

12.   Detail vs imagination

·         Some levels take place in Washington D.C. which is a relatively familiar world, so this world will not need as much detail for the player to understand where they are. There are some famous buildings and monuments, but they are not painstakingly detailed.

·         Levels that are unfamiliar, such as the alien mothershi, have more detail.

·         The Obama-bot does not follow the player around all the time, the bot appears at the press of a button and where he is in between these times is up the imagination of the player.

·         The player knows that aliens are invading Earth, but it is up to their imagination to determine the motivation of the aliens and when the clause about the President fighting the aliens was added. These types of story elements will be things the player thinks about as he or she plays the game.

·         This will be balanced because half of the levels will be familiar worlds, and half will be unfamiliar.

·         Our game also has a lot of character because all of the aliens are unique. They all look different and have different powers. Our game also has humorous pop culture references. The part of the story about the president fighting the aliens is hilarious.  

Homework 8: Rough Guide to Game Mechanics

1. Is the space in your game discrete or continuous?
• The space in our game is continuous.
2. How many dimensions does your space have? 
• the space has three dimensions
3. What are the boundaries of your space? 

• Please enjoy this sweet diagram of our space!
• the game begins at the white house, from there the player is sent to three other worlds and eventually the mothership
• the space will be enclosed by trees and buildings
• the player gets to each of the four separate worlds by walking there from the white house
• when they accomplish the task set for that level and reach the end of the level they step onto a device and it teleports them back to the white house
4. How many verbs do your players (characters) have? What are they? 
• In the overworld the player can run, walk, jump, punch and kick
• The player will also be able to read and interact with objects
• During the fight scenes the player will be able to jump, kick, punch and do combinations of these
5. How many objects can each verb act on? What are these objects? 
• The player can jump on/over anything
• Punch and kick objects to break them and get what is inside
1. Chests
2. Trashcans?
3. Parts of alien weapons/spaceship
4. Futuristic looking objects
5. Columns
6. How many ways can players achieve their goals
• Each of the four levels has a goal that the player achieves through completing puzzles
• Some of the puzzles are things like navigating a maze or timing jumps; others are tasks such as find an important item(for which they receive clues as they interact with the environment)
• The player also achieves the goal of aiding the president in saving the world by winning the random encounter fights with aliens
7. How many subjects do the players control? What are these subjects? 
• The player controls the main character
8. How do side effects change constraints. 
• Whenever the player moves in the overworld, there is a chance that they will move into one of the random encounter spaces
• When the player defeats an alien, they get a little bit stronger, this will be helpful to them because the aliens get stronger as the game goes on
9. What are the operative actions in your game? 
• The player can walk forward and backward
• They can also rotate their character left and right and then continue going backwards or forwards
• Jump on or over any object
• Punch and kick (see 5)
• Punch and kick aliens
• Pick up small objects
10. What are the resultant actions in your game? 
• defend yourself from alien attacks
• dodging projectiles
• navigating through obstacles to complete tasks
• teleport to the white house for next mission
11. What actions would you like your players to do that they cannot presently do? (based on your current knowledge of Blender)
• Our team members have been looking into armatures to make the characters’ arms and legs move
12. What is the ultimate goal of your game? 
• To help the president save the world from aliens
13. Are there short and long term goals? What are they? 
• Short term goals
1. Obtain objects that you can give your mentor for hints
2. Solve puzzles to obtain those objects
3. Fight aliens (and win)
• Long term goals
1. Work your way onto the alien mothership
2. Fight the most important alien
3. Win that fight
4. Save the world
14. How do you plan to make the game goals known and understood by the player? 
• Whenever you go to the White House the president tells you a goal he needs you to accomplish
• Afterwards the mentor reminds you and sometimes gives advice on how to accomplish tasks
• The story also  lets the player know what they are trying to do and why
15. What are the foundational rules of your game? 
• You cannot lose all of your health, or you will die
• You cannot skip levels to go straight to the mothership
• You must complete the current objective before moving onto another one
• You cannot say no to a random encounter fight
16. How are these rules enforced? 
• The player will have to start over from their last save point if they lose all of their health
• Portals take the player from the level back to the white house and unless the play returns with the objective completed, the president will not give them the next task
• Player does not choose when a random encounter fight happens and if they refuse to fight they will be killed by an alien
17. Does your game develop real skills? What are they? 
• Critical thinking skills because of the nature of the puzzles
• Timing because of the jumping puzzles
• Hand –eye coordination…possibly
18. Does your game develop virtual skills? What are they? 
• Timing is a real and virtual skill
• Virtual fighting skills will be acquired

Homework 7: Animation

 Homework 7 click for my blender file!
Blender file of linked object

the turtle!

column

Okay so let’s talk about what those objects in my blender file are 

platform

(due to lack of a signed photo release, the turtle does not appear in the video)

This homework assignment had four requirements:

1.       Parenting

·         I used the ctrl p parenting function to make the column the parent of the platform so that when the column moves around, the fan goes with it.

·          I used that same function on the camera and the turtle so that when the game is played, the camera follows the turtle’s perspective.

·         I read a bit about using the child of constraint relation, but did not quite understand it and when I experimented with it I did not have much success.

2.       Animation

·         I animated the platform of the small column to spin clockwise

·         I did this using the timeline editor

·         I added a rotation keyframe, moved the keyframe and then rotated the platform, then used the i-key and selected rotation

·         I did the same thing for the medium sized column, except that it spins counter clockwise

·         For the medium column, the platform also shrinks and goes back to normal size

·         I did this by adjusting the keyframes and using the i-key and selecting scaling

·         For the largest column I decided to use the i-key and location

·         So while the fan spins clockwise, the column (and platform) move around the board

3.       Linking

·         At first I was working in the file with columns and tried to link the turtle from another file, but then I realized that my logic operations would not work on the turtle if he was linked

·         I tried to use ctrl, atl, p to proxy the turtle, but that also did not work out well

·         So instead I used to the turtle file and linked the animated platforms on columns

4.       Materials

·         It all looks much better with color!

·         For the first few assignments, they all looked depressing in gray

·         I used the diffuse options to add different colors to each of the objects.

·         I chose the colors from a lovely color wheel

·         The columns are pink, purple and green. The turtle is another shade of green and the platforms are light blue.

What does this have to do with our game?

As previously mentioned, our game involves the player going through a variety of different tasks and puzzles. This will be one of the puzzles. The player must jump on/navigate the rotating platforms to obtain different objects.  These puzzles will take place in the RPG part of the game.