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).
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
My Game Walkthrough: Mirror's Edge
For my walkthrough, I analyzed Mirror's Edge, developed EA Digital Illusions CE, powered by the Unreal Engine 3, and released in November 2008 for the Xbox360 and PS3. The game is a single player, first person-view action/adventure, mostly platformer game with sections of fighting and shooting. The player follows the path of Faith, a member of a system of "runners" who physically carry information through a semi-futuristic city that's been otherwise oppressed and kept under close surveillance by a totalitarian regime. The main strength and novelty of the game in my opinion, was the realistic and unique first-person interface.
The player guides Faith fluidly through the game environments by executing time-sensitive combinations of wall runs, wall tacks, jumps, rolls, slides, and other parkour-style acrobatics; the interactivity with the environments is similar to the Prince of Persia games, where there are many areas to freely interact with in different ways, although there's really only one "right" path to follow. There are no distracting indicators on the screen with the exception of a center reference point (that turns into a crosshairs when holding a firearm), creating a more immersive environment that really allows the player to feel like they themselves are in on the action. While the player can't directly see their character, Faith's presence is represented by glimpses of her arms and legs when she reaches for objects, climbs up on platforms, curls in on herself to roll safely from a high jump, or lashes out to punch an enemy.
The game plays through more like a chaptered story than a series of score or performance-based checkpoints, so there are no extra stats to monitor onscreen. There's not even a health bar, although Faith will grunt and the screen will flash red when she sustains a minor injury. If she's taking fire, the screen will flash red and show blood splatters, eventually dimming to black and white as her health fades and she dies. Most of the challenge in the game comes from timing your moves and manuvers correctly, which is paramount to navigating the environment- if you're too slow, you'll often quickly get shot by the authorities (AKA "blues") and the helicopters that follow you closely during chase sequences. If Faith doesn't have enough momentum, or is angled a little bit off from her target, she won't be able to jump or wall run to a far platform or reach a high-up pipe.
These limitations do help to make the gameplay as realistic and plausible as possible. For example, Faith runs slower and can't jump as high once she's picked up a pistol, can't jump or run at all when she's holding a shotgun, and often needs to shoot to break through thicker glass. With the exception of course of surviving extreme falls and multiple gunshot wounds when she has no armor to speak of, the limitations like the small window for executing moves sometimes gets to be annoying- On a couple occasions, I had to repeat a rather long sequence of platforming, fighting, then platforming again between the automatic save checkpoints in the game because of just one jump or wall run that was extremely hard to make if your timing was off at all. This wouldn't have frustrated me so much if there'd been an additional save checkpoint somewhere in between that action, so that I wouldn't have to start over every time I failed to make the jump, on one occasion, starting over INSIDE an elevator where I'd have to wait for it to reach the ground floor and then open before playing through. I also found it unnecessarily annoying how when I was trying to get my bearings of the surrounding rooftops sometimes, Faith just falls if you get too close to a ledge, she doesn't automatically dangle or recover herself.
Timing also comes into play during some of the mandatory fight sequences, which offers a refreshing challenge to the usual shoot-em-up setup. Since Faith is unarmed herself, you have to find a weapon or steal it from an enemy utilizing slow motion- Usually, enemies will be largely immune to kicking and punching, which might knock them back to give you breathing space for a moment, but won't kill them. The more heavily armored "blues" that chase you out of buildings in escape sequences can't even be deterred with pistol fire, thereby forcing the player to exit the level the way they're supposed to by finding alternate routes out, climbing up fountains, breaking through windows, climbing through ventilation shafts, and racing up stairs and hallways instead of trying to cheat and fight their way out of pursuit.
The audio and graphics were particularly essential to aiding gameplay, as red-colored objects offered a hint as to where to go next, and the "hint" B button usually pointed you in the right direction if you were lost- sometimes however, that just made it more confusing since it would be referring to a general, not an immediate course of action, which was increasingly unhelpful when you were unsure whether you could physically make or a jump or not and it actually pointed you AWAY from the platform you were supposed to reach next. Sound cues also clued you in on the action, since Faith herself is mostly characterized from what you see of her in the cartoon-styled cutscenes, her breathing, occasional cursing, and sound effects when she falls, gets shot, or pulls herself up onto a ledge; sometimes your boss would tell you to get going over the radio or inform you of what to do next, and the music would change from a majestic, thrilling tune to a faster pace when you were being chased or under fire.
While the mostly linear, largely homogeneous clean-looking environments aided the "need for speed", get-in-and-get-out dynamic of the navigation, I still would have liked some more content to enrich them. There weren't really any extra pickups besides bonus packs, and interaction with objects in the environment was limited besides platforming on select surfaces, turning the occasional crank, pressing switches, and opening doors. When using a gun, Faith can only fire at enemies- nothing else is destructible (even fallen enemies' dead bodies). Sometimes little pieces add dimension to the city, like a passing train, pigeons that scatter when you run through them, or scrolling advertisements on the screens in the elevators. For the most part, the city seems to be a ghost town with the exception of a few visible cars and passerby in the streets when you're on building tops.
The player guides Faith fluidly through the game environments by executing time-sensitive combinations of wall runs, wall tacks, jumps, rolls, slides, and other parkour-style acrobatics; the interactivity with the environments is similar to the Prince of Persia games, where there are many areas to freely interact with in different ways, although there's really only one "right" path to follow. There are no distracting indicators on the screen with the exception of a center reference point (that turns into a crosshairs when holding a firearm), creating a more immersive environment that really allows the player to feel like they themselves are in on the action. While the player can't directly see their character, Faith's presence is represented by glimpses of her arms and legs when she reaches for objects, climbs up on platforms, curls in on herself to roll safely from a high jump, or lashes out to punch an enemy.
The game plays through more like a chaptered story than a series of score or performance-based checkpoints, so there are no extra stats to monitor onscreen. There's not even a health bar, although Faith will grunt and the screen will flash red when she sustains a minor injury. If she's taking fire, the screen will flash red and show blood splatters, eventually dimming to black and white as her health fades and she dies. Most of the challenge in the game comes from timing your moves and manuvers correctly, which is paramount to navigating the environment- if you're too slow, you'll often quickly get shot by the authorities (AKA "blues") and the helicopters that follow you closely during chase sequences. If Faith doesn't have enough momentum, or is angled a little bit off from her target, she won't be able to jump or wall run to a far platform or reach a high-up pipe.
These limitations do help to make the gameplay as realistic and plausible as possible. For example, Faith runs slower and can't jump as high once she's picked up a pistol, can't jump or run at all when she's holding a shotgun, and often needs to shoot to break through thicker glass. With the exception of course of surviving extreme falls and multiple gunshot wounds when she has no armor to speak of, the limitations like the small window for executing moves sometimes gets to be annoying- On a couple occasions, I had to repeat a rather long sequence of platforming, fighting, then platforming again between the automatic save checkpoints in the game because of just one jump or wall run that was extremely hard to make if your timing was off at all. This wouldn't have frustrated me so much if there'd been an additional save checkpoint somewhere in between that action, so that I wouldn't have to start over every time I failed to make the jump, on one occasion, starting over INSIDE an elevator where I'd have to wait for it to reach the ground floor and then open before playing through. I also found it unnecessarily annoying how when I was trying to get my bearings of the surrounding rooftops sometimes, Faith just falls if you get too close to a ledge, she doesn't automatically dangle or recover herself.
Timing also comes into play during some of the mandatory fight sequences, which offers a refreshing challenge to the usual shoot-em-up setup. Since Faith is unarmed herself, you have to find a weapon or steal it from an enemy utilizing slow motion- Usually, enemies will be largely immune to kicking and punching, which might knock them back to give you breathing space for a moment, but won't kill them. The more heavily armored "blues" that chase you out of buildings in escape sequences can't even be deterred with pistol fire, thereby forcing the player to exit the level the way they're supposed to by finding alternate routes out, climbing up fountains, breaking through windows, climbing through ventilation shafts, and racing up stairs and hallways instead of trying to cheat and fight their way out of pursuit.
The audio and graphics were particularly essential to aiding gameplay, as red-colored objects offered a hint as to where to go next, and the "hint" B button usually pointed you in the right direction if you were lost- sometimes however, that just made it more confusing since it would be referring to a general, not an immediate course of action, which was increasingly unhelpful when you were unsure whether you could physically make or a jump or not and it actually pointed you AWAY from the platform you were supposed to reach next. Sound cues also clued you in on the action, since Faith herself is mostly characterized from what you see of her in the cartoon-styled cutscenes, her breathing, occasional cursing, and sound effects when she falls, gets shot, or pulls herself up onto a ledge; sometimes your boss would tell you to get going over the radio or inform you of what to do next, and the music would change from a majestic, thrilling tune to a faster pace when you were being chased or under fire.
While the mostly linear, largely homogeneous clean-looking environments aided the "need for speed", get-in-and-get-out dynamic of the navigation, I still would have liked some more content to enrich them. There weren't really any extra pickups besides bonus packs, and interaction with objects in the environment was limited besides platforming on select surfaces, turning the occasional crank, pressing switches, and opening doors. When using a gun, Faith can only fire at enemies- nothing else is destructible (even fallen enemies' dead bodies). Sometimes little pieces add dimension to the city, like a passing train, pigeons that scatter when you run through them, or scrolling advertisements on the screens in the elevators. For the most part, the city seems to be a ghost town with the exception of a few visible cars and passerby in the streets when you're on building tops.
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