I put my own knowledge of game design to work to create Sushi Samurai, the small, action/adventure platforming game I created in GameMaker 7 for my final project. After hours of painstaking work and planning, frustrating programming, and often disappointing setbacks, I now have an idea of what it's actually like to produce the games we play. Lackluster content and buggy mechanics aside, I think the most successful aspect of my game is the overall story and concept.
My game aesthetic takes the traditionally cutesy, quirky concept of animate sushi with a darker, grittier feel of more mature action and fighting games; while the environments look about as semi realistic as 2D platforms on a gridded-out object placement system could look, the idea of the game is to navigate through the mossy stones and mountain precipices to collect sushi ingredients. The otherwise muscular, mean-looking samurai hero is dressed in ironically hot pink and neon green armor, lending a charming look to the game.
The monsters are clearly sushi rolls, although they certainly look evil and menacing with bugged out eyes and gaping mouths of sharp teeth. The Dragon Roll boss monster is only slightly more frightening than his smaller minions, with the addition of taloned limbs and the ability to breathe dangerous, fiery projectiles at the hero.
While the story is basic, unfolding through only two levels, it makes sense in the context of the story and drives the action. Text alerts substituting for cutscenes speak to the player as if they were the samurai hero, informing you that you must climb the mountain to return pieces of cursed sushi to the mighty Dragon Roll, a huge sushi roll currently possessed by an evil spirit that has killed your father, a master sushi chef, and is holding his spirit hostage. Once the player collects all the sushi pieces, they are prompted to defeat the monster before entering the final level, where they must dodge fireballs the Dragon Roll spews around the cave and hit him 10 times to defeat him and avenge the hero's father.
Although I'm proud of the overall result of my game, I wish I could have fixed a lot of problems I didn't get to as a result of time constraints and the confusing, often unpredictable and fineckey GameMaker software. The two levels are short and lacking content, and I'd initially planned to include some other pickups to enrich gameplay; there might be some health boosters, or pickups that would make the player temporarily invincible, as well as an extra costume for the hero or a ranged weapon even that would serve as milestone rewards to keep the player interested. I had also wanted to add more complex levels, complete with ladders to climb, keys to get, traps to avoid, and doors to extra areas to open.
I also wanted to add more sprite animations to further characterize the hero and the sushi enemies; I had actually made animated gifs of a walk cycle and an action of the samurai swinging his sword, but I could only include 1 image for the fight sequence; for some reason my game would freeze when more than a single frame of an image was included as the sprite, even though I had included an action for the fighting hero object to turn back into the default hero object after the animation had ended. I had also intended for the sushi minions to have zombie walks and attack animations, although this didn't work out, and my attempted "AI" system (would pace along paths, sense the presence of the hero when he got close enough to attack him, and follow him after that) for the enemies seemed to crash my game and cause glitches.
In the end, I had to simplify some of the grander ideas I had initially had for my game. It was certainly an experience though.
And here it is:
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/106293-samurai-sushi
Friday, December 18, 2009
Walkthrough: Medieval II: Total War
In his walkthrough of Medieval II: Total War for the PC, Ethan demonstrated the sheer scale and complexity of the massive turn-based strategy game. The game even begins with an ambient introductory cutscene to set the historical scene before showing the player a series of menus where they can choose different campaigns and game modes to play through, and different factions, each with their own unique military units, strengths, and weaknesses play as.
The game's basic resource management and conquest goals are the same as similar, smaller-scale games like Age of Empires, Civilization, or Age of Mythology, although these are much more involved and it can take days or weeks to finish a single game. The interface is suited to display all the necessary information the player needs to run their empire by compactly grouping stats, indicators, scores, and units into sidebars or pop-out menus; players balance everything from their income, public order, religion, population growth, and politics, to trade, and even marriage. The player occasionally receives tidbits of historical information or period quotes relevant to the current actions they're taking or resources they're managing to enrich the believability and immersiveness of the game. Voiceovers and other audio cues even have regionally appropriate accents.
The interface impressively accomodates the flood of information the player receives to make it more manageable, allowing the to zoom in on and pan around around their map environment. When zoomed out, military units on the weather-correct map are represented by banners instead of individual figures, although the player isn't left out of the close up battle action at all; in battle mode, the player is treated to a closer cutscene of authentic looking soldiers that are a step up from the usual "cookie-cutter" men. The user can direct their units to use various strategies to win the battle, though the player does have the option of letting the computer automatically determine which side would win, albeit only based on numbers for the sake of saving time.
In this case, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: Although the huge scale makes it very challenging, there is certainly no obvious shortage of content and replay value, and that's not even including the multiplayer option or expansion packs.
The game's basic resource management and conquest goals are the same as similar, smaller-scale games like Age of Empires, Civilization, or Age of Mythology, although these are much more involved and it can take days or weeks to finish a single game. The interface is suited to display all the necessary information the player needs to run their empire by compactly grouping stats, indicators, scores, and units into sidebars or pop-out menus; players balance everything from their income, public order, religion, population growth, and politics, to trade, and even marriage. The player occasionally receives tidbits of historical information or period quotes relevant to the current actions they're taking or resources they're managing to enrich the believability and immersiveness of the game. Voiceovers and other audio cues even have regionally appropriate accents.
The interface impressively accomodates the flood of information the player receives to make it more manageable, allowing the to zoom in on and pan around around their map environment. When zoomed out, military units on the weather-correct map are represented by banners instead of individual figures, although the player isn't left out of the close up battle action at all; in battle mode, the player is treated to a closer cutscene of authentic looking soldiers that are a step up from the usual "cookie-cutter" men. The user can direct their units to use various strategies to win the battle, though the player does have the option of letting the computer automatically determine which side would win, albeit only based on numbers for the sake of saving time.
In this case, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: Although the huge scale makes it very challenging, there is certainly no obvious shortage of content and replay value, and that's not even including the multiplayer option or expansion packs.
Walkthrough VII: Ghostbusters
The main strength of the design for Ghostbusters for the Xbox was how well it complemented the movies; the game environments stayed true to the movies, followed some of the same storylines with the same characters, and tied up loose ends from the series. The original actors voiced their videogame counterparts, the music effectively captures the creepy atmospheres, and even some of the movie enemies show up.
The rich environments make up for the linear gameplay plot; the player can otherwise occupy themselves with sidequests, finding artifacts, unlock achievements, and exploring extensive areas like the firestation where character development actually occurs as a result of spending time "getting to know" the characters in your player's squad more. Nearly everything in the environments contain destructibiles and can be damaged- you can burn walls, explode clocks, topple carts, destroy tables, and interact with certain objects that shimmer to give you a hint.
The interface also contributed to the cinematic, first-person interactive effect since there were no onscreen indicators. The player's health is displayed on the ghostbusters pack on their character's back, ghost readings and menus pop up on the onscreen "PKE meter", and fellow Ghostbusters provide all the audio hints the player would need.
The rich environments make up for the linear gameplay plot; the player can otherwise occupy themselves with sidequests, finding artifacts, unlock achievements, and exploring extensive areas like the firestation where character development actually occurs as a result of spending time "getting to know" the characters in your player's squad more. Nearly everything in the environments contain destructibiles and can be damaged- you can burn walls, explode clocks, topple carts, destroy tables, and interact with certain objects that shimmer to give you a hint.
The interface also contributed to the cinematic, first-person interactive effect since there were no onscreen indicators. The player's health is displayed on the ghostbusters pack on their character's back, ghost readings and menus pop up on the onscreen "PKE meter", and fellow Ghostbusters provide all the audio hints the player would need.
Walkthrough VI: Plants vs. Zombies
Greg covered Capcom’s Plants vs. Zombies game, stressing the casual aspect of the downloadable cartoony game. Gameplay is simple though challenging enough to be engaging, easy to pick up, the levels are short enough for someone to play for a few minutes at a time in between their busy schedule.
The silly, whimsical characterization, and the unique style of the action and arcade style game is eye-catching to new and seasoned gamers alike. Even though the goal of defending one’s property against the advancing undead with garden plants was simple enough, it had replayability; the game includes survival mode, mini games, puzzles, and an adventure mode to unlock more content in. You can also take care of your Zen garden, which gives you coins to spend these at Crazy Dave’s shop to get plant upgrades and garden accessories.
The silly, whimsical characterization, and the unique style of the action and arcade style game is eye-catching to new and seasoned gamers alike. Even though the goal of defending one’s property against the advancing undead with garden plants was simple enough, it had replayability; the game includes survival mode, mini games, puzzles, and an adventure mode to unlock more content in. You can also take care of your Zen garden, which gives you coins to spend these at Crazy Dave’s shop to get plant upgrades and garden accessories.
Walkthrough V: Age of Empires II
As is the case with most resource-management based titles, the real-time Age of Empires II offers a complex array of choice-driven gameplay. First, the player chooses from different civilizations to play as, each with their own unique strengths and military units (ex. gunpowder for the Spanish, camel cavalry for the Saracens, superior ships for the Vikings, and slow but powerful elephants for the Persians). The game also allows you to customize its settings, difficulty level, and maps.
The basic plot/setup for the game is similar to all Age of Empires and Age of Mythology titles- the player must build their civilization as they progress through the ages, and each new age reached allows you to research more upgrades, build new buildings, and produce and equip new units with which to explore and conquer the other nations on the map. The concept is more casual and less time consuming than Medieval Total War, for example, and most games can be finished within an hour or two.
Some features make the semi-large scale of the game easier to manage, starting with the aerial isometric view to give a clear look at the sprawling map, while giving enough visual information as to what the player's units and buildings are doing. Features like "idle villager" and the outlines showing when units are hidden behind trees or a building allow the player to easily locate all of the people they control. The interface itself is a compact, graphically themed frame that holds allthe necessary resource supply numbers (Ex. food, wood, and gold), and health statuses and military formation options for a player's selected units. Historical facts are incorporated into the gameplay to further enrich the action.
More goal content comes into play in the form of winnable achievements and different goals to try and meet (time, conquest, wealth, trade, capturing of relics, and the building of expensive Wonders). The player can also choose to follow specific capaigns that follow the rough backstories of some of the included characters.
The basic plot/setup for the game is similar to all Age of Empires and Age of Mythology titles- the player must build their civilization as they progress through the ages, and each new age reached allows you to research more upgrades, build new buildings, and produce and equip new units with which to explore and conquer the other nations on the map. The concept is more casual and less time consuming than Medieval Total War, for example, and most games can be finished within an hour or two.
Some features make the semi-large scale of the game easier to manage, starting with the aerial isometric view to give a clear look at the sprawling map, while giving enough visual information as to what the player's units and buildings are doing. Features like "idle villager" and the outlines showing when units are hidden behind trees or a building allow the player to easily locate all of the people they control. The interface itself is a compact, graphically themed frame that holds allthe necessary resource supply numbers (Ex. food, wood, and gold), and health statuses and military formation options for a player's selected units. Historical facts are incorporated into the gameplay to further enrich the action.
More goal content comes into play in the form of winnable achievements and different goals to try and meet (time, conquest, wealth, trade, capturing of relics, and the building of expensive Wonders). The player can also choose to follow specific capaigns that follow the rough backstories of some of the included characters.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Game Analysis Walkthrough IV: Bad Company
Zach focused on the immense level of destructibility in Battlefield: Bad Company for the xbox. The player can destroy almost everything in sight, causing satisfying sandbox style lasting damage to the environment; the player can do everything from knifing through a door, exploding barrels or a port-o-potty, shooting holes in walls and roofs, leveling trees and lightpoles in a tank, and setting fire to vehicles. Even enemies you've already killed will still be dead if you restart the level from your last checkpoint.
Other plusses of the game are the immersive interface and driving gameplay. The onscreen indicators are very limited and minimal- a 3D map in the corner is helpful for helping the player find their location , and the amount of ammunition and health is displayed discreetly in the corner of the screen. When the player is taking damage, the screen turns gray and red to let them know they're under attack and are losing health. The first person shooter graphics are realistic and the customizable weapon kits and collectibles further drive gameplay.
A few failings of the game though, are little weak points that take you out of the action- the story about a military squad chasing a gold shipment into a neutral country, thereby causing a conflict is vague, and dubious. The characters are cheesily comedic, and the "health" system is unbelievable since it seems you can instantly heal yourself after some gunshot wounds by injecting yourself with adrenaline. Sometimes, the character movements are too stiff or don't quite flow smoothly with the environment (ex. walking speed is the same on land as it is when you wade through water).
Other plusses of the game are the immersive interface and driving gameplay. The onscreen indicators are very limited and minimal- a 3D map in the corner is helpful for helping the player find their location , and the amount of ammunition and health is displayed discreetly in the corner of the screen. When the player is taking damage, the screen turns gray and red to let them know they're under attack and are losing health. The first person shooter graphics are realistic and the customizable weapon kits and collectibles further drive gameplay.
A few failings of the game though, are little weak points that take you out of the action- the story about a military squad chasing a gold shipment into a neutral country, thereby causing a conflict is vague, and dubious. The characters are cheesily comedic, and the "health" system is unbelievable since it seems you can instantly heal yourself after some gunshot wounds by injecting yourself with adrenaline. Sometimes, the character movements are too stiff or don't quite flow smoothly with the environment (ex. walking speed is the same on land as it is when you wade through water).
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