Reflection

As a computer programmer this game design class is totally different class. In my other classes I have to code and read the chapters from the book. On the other hand, this game design class is fun, interesting and learn many new creative applications.

Fun in a way because we have game sessions in the class where we can participate and learn new games that are completely new. For example, I have played games like Loneliness, Dating Sim, play it again and many more which are completely opposite to each other. Each game has their own mechanics, aesthetics and dynamics.

Interesting in a way because I never get bored during my class session. Each meetings we have some amazing videos that provide us the in-depth of the gaming world. Especially, the "extra credits" video that explain the importance, definition, and all the criteria that is required for the cool game designing. Also, we did the marshmallow challenge and also designed the paper prototypes for developing a board game.

Finally, I have designed a simple game by using game maker. Above image is the initial screen of the game that I have designed using game maker. The only problem that I had faced during this game designing is that I am the only person who is the artist as well as programmer of the game. Therefore, on the part of art side I had some issues to integrate the images and all, but through the images of "rpg gamamker tile set", I have managed to designed a simple and basic structure of the game. As I talk about the mechanics of my game I have added the double jump to the player that is fun.

Overall, this small and simple game is the motivation for me to design and develop new and innovative games in future.

Ingress changes the players perspective by putting them into an alternate reality

Ingress is an augmented-reality massively multiplayer online video game (MMORPG) created by Niantic Labs, an internal Google startup (Grietsch). Planet earth is the battlefield where the two teams Enlightenment which represents the green color and the Resistance which represents the blue color as mentioned in the below image. Both the team has to play this game using portals. These portals are park, buildings, statues and anything that represent some landmark around the player. There are many interesting facts about this game:

First, we can create our own Avatar and we don't need to worry about our multiple online identity. Second, for this we always need to connect to wifi because this is not a couch potato game, but we have to move around by walking or driving to finish the tasks that has been assigned to us by the Agents. Third, we can create a virtual adventure around us where we explore the new landmarks and interact with completely strange people.

Finally, this game has helped to make person more active. If I am talking about myself then the life of a Computer Programmer is to sitting at one place and punches the keys of keyboard with multiple lines of code. This is a stressful job to do. Therefore, by connecting this game helps me to explore the world surrounds me with fun create a user friendly environment.

Works Cited:

Greitsch, P. What is Ingress and Why People Play it. Retrieved From: http://trendblog.net/what-is-ingress-and-why-people-play-it/

Ingress: Augmented Reality-Game on Google. Retrieved From: http://www.androidnext.de/ingress/

Game Design

This is my game design document for the final project in the class.

Description

In this game you control a human character going through many obstacles during the level.  It may be placed in a ruined city. The goal is to reach the end of the level.

Game objects

The background is going to be grey. The player has the ability to jump. There will be some obstacles they will have to get by. There are spikes, doors and moving objects. There are walls the player can slide down or jump from point to point.

Sounds

There is light background music.

Controls

The player controls the game with arrow keys for jump.

Game Flow

The player is put in the game and is given endless lives. There will only one level but the player but player know how much time it will take to finish level. Also, in the gamer there are bonus points that player has to collect.

Levels

There is just one level. Once you reach the end then you win.

I have finished the first level of mechanics in the game. I need to add music, little bit changes in the background as design perspective, add some more bonus points, add score board for points. Finally, add the room 1 for start and other instructions for the Player to play the game.

First step towards Game Design in Game Maker

The game design of a game "Out of Site!" is a creation of our team(Vaishali and Melvin) imagination with the help of Game maker as a tool to implement the partial part of the project. Initially, as a programmer/producer I was not able to understand how to implement a simple character and wall design that has been provided by my designer/artist in a .jpg file. But, the tutorial that has been provided by the Professor has helped me to understand the basic definition of Sprite. I have splitter the image in different small images and through Sprite I have imported the character and other images for the wall as a ratio of 32*32 pixels. After that I have created multiple objects for the corresponding sprites in the game. Later on I have created a room using wall objects by incorporating the design that has been given by my designer.

Simultaneously, I have added my character object in the room. After that I went back to the object folder where I have added the events in the character object. These events provide the motion to a object in a particular way such as: left, right, up, down, collision and soon. This was the very basic I have created and then I me and my designer have tested the game.

The only problem right now I am facing in this design is to find a good music and create the next level with different options. I am also looking for the suggestions that will help me to improve my design for the final game prototype.

In conclusion, the game is simple to collect all the coins then the end door will open and the player win the game.

Game Link: OutOfSite!

Digital Gam Lab

The most important thing about the game development is before design a game a designer has to play different games to understand the basic mechanics which are helpful to the designer. It was an excellent experience to play some new games with the class partner and then try to find out the mechanics behind those games. This helps a designer to learn the definition and the implementation in the new design and development of the game. I have played the following five games with Abigal during the lab session:

1. This is the only level: The goal of the game is to finish a level and move forward to the next level.
2. Jurassic Heart: This is a dating sim. The mechanic behind this game to click on a decision as the story moves forward. This the way of expressing love through textual representation. The user has to click on the options and on those selection the story normally ends or progress throughout out the game.
3. You Have to Burn the Rope: The goal is to burn the rope to kill a boss to finish the game. The mechanics behind the game is starts with to move a player with arrow keys and the player has to read the text, those texts are working as a guidance to the player in the game. Also, player has to use the torch to burn the rope for that he/she has to jump on the walls. This was the simple game with the combination of text and video which are helpful for the player.
4. Dys4ia: The game is about the hormone replacement therapy and gender identity disorder which translates the experiences of the game designer. The mechanics behind the game is that time constraint from moving one screen to the another screen which is limited. It has the four levels which tells a story(narrative) about there experiences thought her life with lots of emotions in them.
5. Qwop: This was the hardest game to figure out how to move an athlete who is the runner trying to run a race. This was the frustrating game for me because we have a short amount of time and it was required a lot of amount of patience throughout the entire game. Regarding the mechanics we have to use letters O for foot, P and W for moving the legs simultaneously. I have tried so many times with these keys, but the player was keep falling down. Therefore, in my opinion this is not easiest game to play.

From this list the most interesting game that I found out was "This is the only Level". First, game mechanics of this game is very simple by using simple visual through geometric shapes like squad, rectangle, circle and soon. Also, design is same except the color keep changes in each stage. Second, throughout the game there are arrow keys used to go reverse and forward,  and also the mouse and shift key also required for some stages. Third, the main goal of the game is to take an elephant to the next stage without falling him on the blue color of spikes. Third, there are no penalties throughout the game suppose if a player drop an elephant on the spike. Finally, the only hard part of the game is to figure out which key is going to be use for the each stage, but by trial and error one can figure out easily to move forward. Therefore, this is the most interesting game to play.

Refference

Play this one!: http://armorgames.com/play/4309/this-is-the-only-level

Work Cited

Brendan, G. (2013, November 11). This is the Only Level Title. Retrieved from http://beerandjoysticks.com/this-is-the-only-level/#axzz3FNsf5YEW

Design and Analysis of my first Game Prototype

I am a new comer towards this fascinating and interesting gaming industry. Game designing is combination of aesthetics, mechanics and dynamics. To learn those a designer has to implement those by developing prototypes. Therefore, it was a very enthusiastic moment for me when the professor has mentioned that group of two students have to design a paper prototype for the game by using a simple concept of finish to start game. We have to do three sessions for our designed game prototype to analyze and improvise it.

Session 1: In the first session, we begin with a simple design of our game by drawing some sketches on the paper. Then we starts writing the rules by using a mechanics of dice rolling. According to board game geek website, "Dice rolling is a game by itself see Yahtzee or Craps but as a game mechanic dice rolling in a game can be used for many things, randomness being the most obvious. Dice can also be used as counters; start at 6 (for a normal die: singular for dice) and turn it to 5 at the end of a round, single player's turn etc." The main target of our game was to cross the border and captures the other person; by reaching opponent's begin point. We were not able to play the game in the first session because of the time constraints.

Session 2: In this session, I started integrating rules for the game and come up with the name of the game. I named it "Who Capture B?", B denotes

the begin point of opponents team. I also added all the points in the game. After this improved I played the game with the another team mate from the class. Though in the image the yellow sticky are rules that we designed fro the game. We uses the mechanic of "Point to Point Movement", where when a player roll a dice the token move from one point to another which depend on the number of roll in the dice. We played couple of times and then we were changing the rule list if we were stuck at one loop again and again.

Session 3: This was the last session that I have played with my family members. During the game there are many questions arose by them regarding the rules. These questions have helped me to

improve the rules. For example, in my design there is palace called Volcano and when the player come there he/she has to wait for the magic number 6 to move forward. But it was trial error thing. Therefore, from their suggestions I have updated that rule to if someone get ">=3" for more then twice in two chances then  they get a treat to move two steps ahead in the game. This mechanic is known as "Press your Luck", where one can repeat an action on certain constraints that has been designed by the game developer.

In conclusion, these three sessions are the best way of design the game and they help me to come up with new ideas toward the game designing. Also, the inputs from other user has enhanced my approach of designing the rules in this particular game.


Resource:

BoardGameGeek | Gaming Unplugged Since 2000. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2014, from http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/

Session report on the game-play

We were a group of 10 students in the class were assigned to play any of the board games or card games. We have picked a game called sequence, it was originated in Minneapolis by Douglas Reuter. Sequence is the game of cards, poker chips and a board with printed cards on it. Before we start to play the game, we have a question in our minds that "how 10 players can play this board game?". Therefore, the booklet of rules in the game box has saved our day and by following the instructions of that tiny little booklet we have started our game.

First Step: We were divided into group of three teams. Each team member of teams has three cards in their hands, a bag of red, blue and green poker chips and a deck of extra cards were placed on the table.

Second Step: Each player has to decide a card from their hands that he/she wants to put on the board. For example, if a player wants to put the "hearts of 4" on the board and a player has red poker chip then he/she has to place  the poker chip on the board and the card in front of the board. After that the player has to pick another card from the deck of cards, so the player has again 3 cards in the hands. This is the simple procedure of playing this game.

Final Step: We have less amount of time therefore, we all have decided to go with the rule of whichever team will first place the 5 poker chips in a row horizontally/vertically/diagonally on the board will win the game. Above  image represents that red team has placed the five poker chips, both horizontally and diagonally on the board. Also, here is the detailed link of the rules of the game can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_(game).

One thing that I have learned through this session that it is better to read the instructions manual though they are not found that much interesting, but they always help us to know more about the game-play.

Here is the link if someone is interested in buying the sequence game: http://www.amazon.com/Jax-8002-Sequence-Game/dp/B00000IVAK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1410369869&sr=8-3&keywords=sequence+jumbo+board+game.

Beginning towards gaming industry

Games are very popular from the ancient age. They helps us to build our physical as well as mental condition strong by applying various imagination to the game. Yesterday in class when professor has assigned our group a Marshmallow challenge then I had a question in my mind that how one can play a game with marshmallow. We have to build a tallest
tower from spaghetti, thread, tape and on top we have to put marshmallow. The only thing comes to my mind that if a base is strong then any size of tower can stand for a long time and for that we have to build the pillars that provides a strong support to the marshmallow which will be on top of the tower. With the help of our team we built a tower and it was on the table for more than 3 minutes. It was an amazing thing that I have done with the the help of the team members whom I hardly even know. The one thing that I have learned from this challenge that game always connect people.