Homework 12

Because of my schedule, I have to work on my own from this point. For this week, my tasks are:

• Come up with the storyline and mechanics
• Try to find some usable existing models
• Start to pull things together

Update: The background has been pulled together. I've found some objects and the character for the game.

Homework 11

Chapter 1

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

I think so. One of the motivations of playing game is the feeling of achievement. The obstacles will create the situation for the players to achieve and challenge him/herself.

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

The background story of our game comes from the comic books dragon balls. When the player plays the game, he/she will feel like the character in the book. The character is heroic, brave, capable, and trustful. The character will save the village and his/her family and friends.

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

The obstacles include fighting over the aliens, getting clue of the dragon balls, and finding the dragon balls to move forward.

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

Yes. As the player gets familiar with different kinds of aliens, he/she will be able to get the skills to fight with the alien using right strategy. And the player would be able to have enough money to purchase weapon and medicine. As the player gets the better weapon, there should be challenge for them.

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

The weapon will transform to another level as the protagonist gets further in the game. This will help the player to face the challenge and better himself.

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

The player can always escape from the battle and get food and medicine in the store. And the rules of the game is pretty simple: fight over alien and get the ball.

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

At the very end of the game, the player would be able to make any wish and it will come true. And during the game, the player would be able to use magic at some point and fight with aliens.

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

The alien attack a medieval village with virus.

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

The alien will look retro in the game so that they can fit in to the game design. It can be the exploration of imagination if it works out.

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

Yes. The game story is developed based on a very popular comic book and people love it! 

Chapter 16

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

The environment of the game is exploratory. Ideally, the player should be able to interact with any items in the world. The boundries are invisible and covered by the forest and the houses. Basically the player can go anywhere they want.

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

The constraint will be the houses with aliens hidden in it. The player will not be able to get into the house until the player kill the aliens. And if the player does not have adequate money, food, or weapon, he/she will be killed by the alien.

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

Ideally, the player will follow the storyline of the game. They should be able to know how to use the items in the game and how to get information. They will have conversations with in-game characters and find out clues for their next steps.

4. Can you set constraints to "kind of" force the player to do it?

Conversation with the villagers on the street belongs to this category. The player needs enough information to move forward with the game.

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

Not yet. But I am planning to set up a hint like "talk to the guy sitting in the corner to get some info".

Homework 9

Balance #1: Fairness

I think the balance of the fairness relies on all of the following items. I will relate each of the balance type to our game in the following.

Balance #2: Challenge vs. Success

Some of our challenges in the game include getting the message of the hidden place of the dragon ball, practice before the player can upgrade to a better weapon, and the maze. For an experienced RPG player, it will be easier. But still, we have the triggers of exposing the message of dragon ball’s location. The player has to talk to the right people passes by to trigger this message. There are 4 worlds in our game and each world is harder than the last world. The player won’t be able to get into the next world until he/she succeeds in the last world. By increasing the difficulty with each world, we are trying to make the players keep the interest in the game.

Balance #3: Meaningful Choices

One of the applications of Triangularity in our game is the choices of the weapon. The most basic weapon would be the sword. The player will have a sword once he/she gets into the game. But after a while, the sword won’t be enough for the player to fight over the aliens. He/she has to buy a better weapon in the shops. Different weapons can be used to fight with different aliens.

Balance #4: Skill vs. Chance

I am not aware of the skills and chances in our game yet so far. But it’s a good strategy to apply to the game.

Balance #5: Head VS. Hands

I personally prefer a game involves more thinking and strategy rather than just pushing the buttons. I think we are trying to combine and balance the mental and physical elements in our game. For example, the communication between the player and the passer-by involves the information collecting and analysis. The player needs to think before action. While he/she gets into the maze in the house, the player will need to use the sword and use different motions to fight over the aliens in the maze.

Balance #6: Competition vs. Cooperation

Our game is single player game for now and the player will compete with the computer-controlled aliens. We have only have a more specific idea of our first world for now (will have four world in total). For the first world, the player will get the help from the other villagers around him/her. The player will need to cooperate with the villagers (for example, to help the senior lady to carry her stuff or to prevent the villagers from hurting each other) so that the player will be able to get the hidden message from the villagers.

Balance #7: Short vs. Long

The time to achieve the goal for the game will vary for different players because of many of the triggers in our game. For example, the player has to kill enough aliens before they can upgrade their weapons, the player has to talk to the people to get the message and trigger the following steps. I was thinking the way we balance the time of our game for different players can be to add another character in the game who give hints to the player saying like “You should talk to Jim in the shop to get more info.” And we can set up the time for the hints to show up so that a beginner won’t feel frustrated if they cannot find the message.

Balance #8: Rewards

The rewards for our game can be resources (the food needed for the player, coins to upgrade the weapon, etc). Because we have a pretty clear purpose, which is to collect dragon balls and get the dragon out at the end, so the dragon balls can be viewed as rewards at the end of each level. The player who has ever watched the Dragon Balleze should be able to easily relate to the game.

Balance #9: Punishment

The punishment for the player of not fighting over the aliens would be loss of blood. This will make the player die. He/she has to come out and buy the medicine/hurbs to get their blood back.

Balance #10: Freedom vs. Controlled

The controlled elements in our game include the environment, certain message given to the players, the weapon needed to kill one kind of alien, etc. The freedom of the player is that he/she can explore the world and talk or interact with any kind of thing to get message and figure out strategy to kill the alien and get the ball.

Balance #11: Simple vs. Complex

Our current story and mechanics both are pretty simple, especially for those who are familiar with the Dragon Ballze. And for now the storyline is basically “get the message, kill the alien, look for the ball”. It is straightforward. We will try to include some of the complexity later given the time.

Balance #12: Detail vs. Imagination

We set up the story background as in medieval, which makes it easier to tap the imagination. The players is so familiar with the modern settings and technology that they will find it fresh to get into the environment they are not familiar with.