Homework 9

When talking about the first type of balance in Ch. 11 of the book, it uses Pac-Man as an example of symmetric vs. asymmetric gameplay.  Having four ghosts chasing after Pac-Man makes the gameplay more asymmetrically and also more challenging for the player than having a single ghost, which would make the game more symmertical.  Our objective would also be to work towards asymmetry, having multiple monsters that will go after the player if they draw near, and give the player access to items they find through exploration and puzzle-solving that will help them escape the monsters.  Using asymmetry would allow us to give players a way to explore the game space and create interesting situations.  Looking at our idea through the "Lens of Fairness", we want to provide an interesting challenge for all players.

In balance type 5, "heads vs. hands", it would be that apparent our game is going to emphasize the "head" side, presenting challenges that are solved with thinking, rather than dexterity.  However, there will be sparse moments of action where player may be pressured to make a quick on-the-fly decision, if, for instance, they are being pursued by a monster.  The player could panic and make a mistake in the actions they perform, but the challenge of the game will not come from trying to master a complex control scheme.

Balance type 8, rewards, will be a large part of our game.  Resources are one such example of a player reward.  The player will have the option to collect items that will aid in their escape of the monsters.  We want these resources to take a lot of effort from the player to acquire, from deep exploration into the labrynth or fulfilling a challenge's requirements.  The player will have a great sense of satisfaction using these items to escape or even fight back against monsters that they are normally powerless against, but they may find even greater rewards if they refrain from using items in encounters with monsters.  Because our game is a horror game, it will have periods of low action in order to build up players' tension, and use specific sounds to cue the player as to their situation and the effects of their decisions.  The book mentions how "Nintendo games are famous for giving players lots of secondary praise via sounds and animations for every reward they get."  I knew that as soon as we decided we would make a horror game that this was a concept I wanted to make extensive use of.  Balancing the games rewards will be one of the most important components to making it fun.

Length-wise, it's not aiming to take long.  The environment we have is small and the player's objective is simple - make it out of the labrynth.  The length could be stretched out by having the player start out from the beginning of the labrynth if they lose.  This idea could change as the design of our game becomes more clear and we test out what players find fun and fair.  This ties balance type 7 together with type 9, punishment.  The player could be punished for failing by being sent back to the beginning, but our game ought to include an incentive of some kind to encourage them to try again.

The last three types of balance offer some seriously interesting and perplexing conundrums.  #10, Freedom vs. Controlled Experience, is probably the easiest when going by the book, and leaning more towards a controlled experience makes a better game, so long as we don't give the player so little control that they feel like they're playing an amusement park ride instead of a game.  #11, Simple vs. Complex, is a little harder.  It's one thing to make a game that's simple yet effective, but making a simple game with emergent complexity is in a whole different ballpark.  I find it fortunate we decided on a horror game, and also made it take place in a maze.  A maze already has a degree of innate complexity, and if the rules of the game are designed well, then the coveted "balanced surprises" mentioned in the book will be even better as a result.  With horror games, these "balanced surprises" are integral to the game, because their very nature is to mess with player's expectations. The parts of horror games where monsters pop out and scare the player are just a part of the whole experience -- they become truly memorable when the moments leading up to those scares are also engaging and full of surprises.  Games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Five Nights at Freddy's are praised not just for the way in which they give players limited resources to manage, but how they mess with the player's head, making them feel paranoid and delusional as the monsters pursuing them draw closer and closer.  Our game should try to balance suspense and surprise.

The last type of balance is currently in a place I'm unsure of.

Homework 7

NOTE: I had this assignment about 70% done before I rebooted my computer.  However, I foolishly believed what I had entered was automatically saved to my drafts, and when I pulled up the fraft everything I'd put into it was gone.  This version will be a much more brief do-over.

1. Is the space in your game discrete or continuous?

Similar to how the textbook talks about a soccer game having both discrete and continuous space, our game will also make use of both spaces.  The player will be able to move around in three dimensions, which uses continuous space, but the gameplay will confine them mostly in a maze, which can be simplified to a discrete space.

2. How many dimensions does your space have? 
The game will operate in three dimensions.  The player can currently move along the x and y axes and look around in all directions, as well as jump.  Keeping in the jump ability would mean the z-axis is planned to be incorporated in some way with the gameplay.

3. What are the boundaries of your space? 
The boundaries are within the maze of the game world -- there are some locations planned to be outside of the maze but they will consist of small spaces that cannot be travelled outside of.

4. How many verbs do your players (characters) have? What are they? 
Player's actions should include the following:

• Walk
• Possibly run
• Look
• Jump
• Collect
• Hold
• Use

5. How many objects can each verb act on? What are these objects? 
Walking (and running, if implemented), looking, and jumping are all actions that apply only to the player character.  Collecting, holding (either in Sara's inventory or her hands), and using are verbs for items found in the labyrinth.  The items themselves can be used on the player character herself (or just be general uses that help players reach their goals) or on the monster they encounter.

6. How many ways can players achieve their goals?
Players will have several ways to reach the end of Purgatory -- through multiple physical paths in the maze, and whether various items should be used to escape the monsters or kept for other purposes.

7. How many subjects do the players control? What are these subjects? 

8. How do side effects change constraints?

9. What are the operative actions in your game? 

10. What are the resultant actions in your game? 

11. What actions would you like your players to do that they cannot presently do? (based on your current knowledge of Blender)

12. What is the ultimate goal of your game? 

13. Are there short and long term goals? What are they? 

14. How do you plan to make the game goals known and understood by the player? 

15. What are the foundational rules of your game? 

16. How are these rules enforced? 

17. Does your game develop real skills? What are they? 

18. Does your game develop virtual skills? What are they?