Critiques for projects (Week 2-Presentation continued)

Critiques for projects (Week 2-Presentation continued)

Game #5
Name of the Game: 3rd cloud
Project Manager: Drew Batcheller

Art: Don’t really know what the arts are going to be like. Right now they are rendering some clouds.
Balance: Having too many options in areas that does not really need options and create complications. (Some areas are lacking options when needed.)
Model they used: Players can choose their own profession. 1 out of 4 different skill paths might be too limited.

Mechanics: Overall, the mechanic of this game is somewhat balance.
Originality: This game is very similar to games that are already out in the market.
How well the prototype resembles the game: The prototype resembles the game well.


Game #6
Name of the Game: Food fights
Project Manager: Scott Ko
Food fights in Battleship style turn based.

Art: Unsure about the Art design.
Balance: Their team decided to switch to XNA instead of game maker. Using XNA will balance out some of the limitation that they were facing earlier using Game Maker.
Model they used: They have to create enough variation in map designs.
Mechanics: Will time constraints be added to the game if they have multiplayers?
Originality: This game is pretty original and interesting.
How well the prototype resembles the game: The prototype somewhat resembles the game.


Game #7
Name of the Game: Drive Thru Tycoon
Project Manager: Kelvin Kao
http://www.sfu.ca/~sjim/iat410/w8demo.swf

Art: Very vibrant and interesting art work.
Balance: The game is well balance.
Model they used: They might have to work out the time constraint. Things to consider: how much time does each player gets?
Mechanics: Overall the mechanics of the game are great, can be more detail.
Originality: This game is pretty original, there are similar game out there, but I’ve never play a “Drive Thru” game before.
How well the prototype resembles the game: The prototype is similar the actual game.

Game #8
Name of the Game: Circular Strife
Project Manager: Cody Church

Art: Pretty strong art illustration.
Balance: The game is fairly well balanced.
Model they used: The game is well-defined in many ways, but will they be able to deliver what they are targeting for?
Mechanics: There is something for everyone, but at the same time, the game genre can be too broad.
Originality: The game is very original, but it can be boring or mind numbing if you play for a long period of time.
How well the prototype resembles the game: The prototype resembles the game in many ways.

Game #9
Name of the Game: Sick Ninja
Project Manger: Cody Sawataky
Didn’t present due to technical difficulties. (Will present next week)

What I did this week

Week 8

What I have done for this week:

-       more characters design

-       Choosing the right color for characters

-       Trying different art styles.

-       Continued to develop the game’s story, finalized the overall plot and story.

-       Screen design (Initial)

 

For next meeting:

-Get feedback from team members, see if they like the arts or not.

 

Meeting:

- During Tuesday Lab Time

 

For next week:

- Gain general feedback of UI

- Artwork of UI

- Typography of use in UI

Critiques for projects(Week 1)

Game #1_AntLion:
This is the game that our team is making.

Game #2- Fins of Fury:

Art

-Beautiful 3d Modeling

 

Balance

-Overall, the game is well balanced. They have a fair amount of 3d modeling to do.

 

Model they used

-They made the paper prototype with poster board (2dish), but their game is (3d)

 

Mechanics

-Game rules are overwhelming 

-Personally, I don't think adding weapons to the game will necessarily make it a better game, especially when the characters are fishes and frogs, it just doesn't make sense to add weapons to the game. 

 

 

Originality

-Interesting concept

 

How well the prototype resembles the game

-The paper prototype does not resemble the real game; how close is the paper prototype to the actual game?

Game #3-Mizu:

 

Art

-Very nice concept arts, very cute.

 

Balance

-Is it a fantasy game? Is it an adventure game? Be specific

-Game does not have a target market. Team should narrow down the their target audiences. 

 

Model they used

-They spend a lot of time drawing out characters.

-The game concept might be too difficult to understand for people who are not familiar with the asian "Five elements." Need a really STRONG story to support the game. Right now, I don't really see a strong story behind it.

Mechanics

-Game rules are fairly straightforward

-Personally, I don't think adding weapons to the game will necessarily make it a better game, especially when the characters are fishes and frogs, it just doesn't make sense to add weapons to the game. 

Originality

-Very educational

-Good mission statement. "Saving the world one droplet at a time

 

How well the prototype resembles the game

-Didn't really test out the game mechanics since the paper prototype doesn't simulate the game completely.

-Again, needs work on the content/story and game play.

Game #4-Untitled Game (By: Michael Y., Kevin T, Alex Y, Alex L)

Art

-The presentation lack visual aid, cant really visual what the game is going to be like. 

 

Balance

-Don't think you need to add more enemies(AI), too much of a good thing can be bad

-Again, if you must add puzzle to the game, cut back on it or try to limited to a decent amount of puzzle/mini games.

 

 

Model they used

-Have their own game engine

-Have a dedicated programmer

 

 

Mechanics

-This is a fighting game, why do you add puzzle to the game?

Originality

-Unique game concept

 

How well the prototype resembles the game

-Completely changed the game concept, can be a good/bad thing. 

Ada:)

What I’ve done this week 10/22

What I’ve done this week 10/22


What you have done this week for the project?

This week, I did some initial concept arts for the game. I have created concept arts for the main character (Ant lion and Ant). I will be doing some research as to how to animate the characters.

Where and when you met with your group?
Our group met last Thursday, Oct 18, 07 in room 3300 at 7:30pm (right after our lab). We will again this Tuesday, Oct 23, 07 to make sure that we have everything on our presentation.

What you are going to do for next week
I will be doing some(landscape) concept arts and hopefully I will be able to create 2-3 different versions of concept arts by the end of next week.

I will also be critiquing other team’s presentation; hopefully I will be about to provide useful and constructive feedback for other teams.

Ada:)

Evaluation

Once we’ve built the game, we recruited subjects to test out our game. Overall, our subjects seemed to enjoy the game.

It took some time to read the rule sheet, but once they have read it, they got right into the game.

 

During the observation, we observed the players and here are some of the things that we might need to take into consideration:

 

1: States of the game character/complexity

Since this is a 2D board game, the state of the pieces on a game board does not change, how do we represent it in a digital version of our game? (For example: The level of a player’s health, in our case, the anxiety level of the “Ant” character. How do we represent it?)

Suggestion 1: A health status bar that shows the current state of the “Ant”

Suggestion 2: Change the music to a more intense and upbeat music.

Suggestion 3: “Ant” changes color when it gets nervous.

 

2: Choice.

Are we going to make a digital version of our board game? If we are, are we going to use the “players take turns rolling the dice” rule? How will the player make a choice in the digital version of our game? Will they be making choices by playing a card (e.g. rpg)? Pressing a button?

 

3: Decision-making 

Will players be doing any decision-making in this game? Or should it be based on luck (Programming)? If players do make decisions in this game, how will that affect the outcome of the game?

 

 

Game design problems that we need to avoid:

1) Players: Feeling as if decisions are arbitrary, random and illogical. They are not engaged.

 

Solution: Make sure that player actions have meaningful outcomes.

 

 

2) Players: Rules are unclear; objective of the game is vague, players do not what to do next.

 

Solution: Additional information display, for example, health pedometer

3)    Players: Losing a game without knowing how and why

 

Solution: Inform players; let them know how they are doing. E.g. “Ant” smiles when he/she passes the danger zone.

4)    Players: Not having any feedback.

Solution: Provides clear feedback whenever players make a move. 

Ada:)

Project revision

Our project lead, Andrew, called a meeting session with the team to discuss the technical issues that we might have if we’re to create a Real-time Strategy game since we do not have a dedicated programmer.

 

During our meeting, Andrew, Charles and I came up with a new concept. Instead of creating an RTS game, our team came up with some new ideas (instead of just ants, we will introduce other game character(s) e.g: Ant lion) and two different ways of building this game:

 

1)    Board game/Puzzle.

-Player= An Ant

-Player needs to escape from the Ant lion pit/cave.

-Player needs to navigate his/her way back to get out of the danger zone.

-Puzzle itself contains traps/rewards, that would slowdown or speed up the Ant.

-Involves: decision making/educational

 

2)    Action (Shooter)

-Player=Ant Lion

-Player needs to shoot sand at ants so that ants would fall into the pit.

-Ant Lion has a limited amount energy/sand to shoot sand.

 

Prototyping/Prototype Game Testing

During our 2^nd meeting, our team came up with some concepts for our paper prototype.

Originally, we wanted to create a 3D dome-shaped board that resembles an Ant lion’s pit for our board game; however, Andrew brought up a good point, he did not think it was a good idea to create a board game in 3D, by creating a 3D board for our paper prototype, it would imply that our team will be making a 3D game.

At the end, our team created a crisp, clean and simple broad game. The broad game includes the following items:

-2D checkerboard

-An Ant game piece

-Basic rules

-Dice

 

This board game is a two-player game. Player one is the Ant lion and player two is the Ant escaping. During the game, players will take turn rolling the dice and they will take action based on the Basic rule sheet that we’ve provided.

Some of the things that we might want to add/change/update in the future:

-Who should be the first one to roll the dice? (Ant or Ant Lion? How do you determine that? What would be the difference if the Ant/Ant Lion were the first one who rolls the dice? Would it change the outcome of the game?)

-Instead of using a checkerboard as our game board, can we add details to it to make it more interesting? Traps? Ladders?

-Can players understand the rules that we’ve provided? Are we using the correct wording (e.g.: target group 5yrs and older=easier words/rules)

Ada:)

Joining a Winning team

Everyone in our lab had the luxury to join a team with a game concept that he/she would like to work on, instead of being assigned to a team.

This is because we only have 14 people in our lab. Our class size is relatively small compared to other labs, individual skill sets are evenly distributed throughout the class.

I really liked Andrew’s idea; his plan is to create a game that is similar to SimAnt, a very successful game that was created by Maxis during the early 90’s.

The idea of creating a game that has a retro vibes to it sounds really refreshing. Most of the games nowadays are concentrated heavily on the 3D graphics and not necessarily the detail or concept of the game. By joining Andrew’s team, we are hoping that we would be able to create something that is invigorating, not something that is dull and generic.

According to Andrew’s presentation, his game introduced a game play that is both entertaining and educational for pre-teen. We have a good team and we look forward to making this game; however, the only concern is that we do not have a dedicated programmer.

Ada:)