Yes.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a complicated game. You can brutally kill innocent people, and rob honest travelers, and commit various other terrible crimes. However, you can also explore breathtaking terrain, help your friends survive, and assist townspeople on quests. You can play the hero or the villain - or some combination of both. These nuances and complexities are what makes Red Dead an amazing game. I can understand criticisms of excessive violence and I think that it's important to ensure that no game is too graphic. At times, Red Dead can be very violent - which I don't like - but most of the time, it's alright. What about the gameplay itself? It's great: the controls are novel yet intuitive, the environment design is amazing, and so much more. I love the sound design and visual design as well. They fit into the game world well and don't take away from the game. The attention to detail is very good as well. I appreciate the advanced 3D models and the well done textures that I have learned to pay attention to through working on the team game project on Unreality. Speaking of Unreality, there are some lessons we can learn from Red Dead. In the game scene itself, we can make a very atmospheric environment from taking inspiration from it. We can also make sure there is convexity in the story, allowing players to choose which paths to take. There is some uncertainty in Unreality's progression and linearization (i.e. how much affordance to show the character's path). Hopefully, we can learn from games such as Red Dead to improve Unreality. Summary
0 Comments
I've gotten to a working edition of the Parkour Games - the big project I've been ranting about on this page - but I'm far from finished. There are still missing features that I can't wait to add.
First, let's examine the respawn system. It has given me trouble for a while. Initially, it was especially troublesome with triggers and colliders and teleporting the trigger to a checkpoint instead of the player. I worked around the respawn issue by creating a level underneath the caves with arrows serving as signifiers to direct the player back to a starting point. However, I still want to do work on the respawn system, whether that means improving what I currently have or revamping my original idea to work more consistently. Although it would be nice to change the respawning mechanics, the most important thing to change is definitely the controls. I began development of the Parkour Games with a third person perspective in mind. However, during my process of simplifying the educational aspect, I switched to a first person view. I didn't change scripts or assets, though, I just swapped my player object with a camera object. I'd like to implement the built-in FPS controller into my game to have a more manageable movement and view panning system. Now, it's time to go over my level ideas. Right now, there are only the desert and tundra levels, but I'd like to add more. The forest and grasslands levels would be perfect additions, along with a final boss of sorts (i.e. a quiz on what biomes look like to polish off the educational aspect of Parkour Games). Hopefully, these additions coming soon will really help my game feel complete. Summary
A parkour game. Possible. An educational parkour game. Also possible. An educational parkour game geared towards kindergarten through 2nd grade? Maybe possible? Let's take a look at what I've managed to do this week about educating young children through parkour.
The educational aspect of my parkour game has evolved greatly since my prototype was published earlier this week. I changed many things, which I'll outline here. The most obvious change is certainly the shift away from countries. Initially, Parkour Games revolved around different countries competing to be the best at parkour. The player could select a country at the beginning of the game and have a third person look at a representation of the country to play as. That's been scrapped. I've changed the focus of the educational aspect from a scrambled, disjointed, fifth or sixth grade geography lesson to a basic biome activity. I also removed the continent screen from the instruction screens, as it was no longer necessary for my new focus. I changed the biome map from the falling instructions from a complicated, fourteen-biome mashup to a simple four biome image that's much easier for young kids to digest. It's a shame to see the country and continent stuff gone from my game - especially because I spent a lot of time creating textures, programming, and debugging features revolving around them - but it's definitely worth it. Taking into account my target audience and rethinking certain design decisions has led to a great outcome. Now, thanks to my adjustments, Parkour Games is a much simpler parkour game which I'm proud of. Summary
Recently, Activision Blizzard, a prolific video game development company, has been exposed for a very toxic work environment. There were many reports that surfaced of harassment and abuse that occurred daily at Activision Blizzard. However, it's still a company and still working on games.
There's been an array of great quality, best-selling games produced by Activision Blizzard, some of which I've played. Crash Bandicoot, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush, Overwatch, and the Call of Duty series are all games made by the company. There are, of course, many future games expected to be produced by the game development studio, including a new Call of Duty game set to release this year. But how realistic is it to expect new games from Activision Blizzard, and, if so, is purchasing them morally wrong? First, let's take a look on something essentially every business has: a work environment. Whether it's bustling cubicles or a peaceful private room, the atmosphere is crucial to productivity. With heightened tensions only being added with the past year's exposure of Activision Blizzard's toxicity, it's safe to say that delays should be expected. How about the moral situation? To start off, the CEO, Bobby Kotick, who has been accused of continuing harassment, is still employed despite calls for his exit. It's clear that Activision Blizzard isn't completely committed to the safety of their employees. However, many video game companies overwork their employees in times such as crunches in order to release a game on time and not buying from Activision Blizzard would their harm their employees as well. Although occasional overworking is nowhere near as bad as daily abuse, it's important to consider that no business is perfect. That being said, I can understand the perspectives of both sides of the argument to boycott Activision Blizzard. Summary
Creating the UI of a game is one of the most crucial design decisions. It can be done in a wide array of methods that span across many different genres. Today, I'm going to step foot in the jungle of user interfaces and explore how some games I enjoy playing employ it. First, I'll launch an investigation into the uber-successful sandbox/adventure game available on all platforms: Minecraft. Its user interface is very simple, containing a health bar and inventory. This can help focus the player on playing the game instead of being distracted with a complex UI. However, a highlighted box surrounds the item the player is currently selecting. This prevents confusion surrounding which object is selected. Additionally, Minecraft added a hunger bar beside the health bar a few years ago, which lets the player understand the hunger mechanic by displaying how hungry they are. The UI is located in the center bottom of the screen to not obstruct gameplay while still being easily found.
Temple Run, another very popular game, is an adventure-ish infinite running game on mobile. The UI of Temple Run has three main components: the coin collection, the score indication, and the pause button. Each of these three are away from the center of the screen, each in a corner, which is imperative for a mobile game for good visibility. They also are stylized in the aesthetic of the game. The coin collection shows how many gold coins the player has collected. The score indication - you guessed it - indicates the score the player has earned. Finally, the pause button allows for the player to momentarily leave the game, another high importance thing for mobile. Star Wars Battlefront 2, available on consoles and computers, isn't nearly as well-selling as Temple Run or Minecraft, but it's a great example of a unique UI and it's a first person shooter game. The top of the screen shows information relating to the objective of the game: how many kills each team has, how many areas each team controls, etc. The bottom right displays items the player has and when they are available to use. The health bar, at the very bottom of the screen, shows how much health the player has. Above it lies more information: how fast a gun is overheating and indicating damage or kills. These are important elements to include in a game that includes guns. Lastly, in the bottom right, there's a minimap that includes the locations of nearby players. Summary
I'd be surprised if anyone who spends a decent amount of time on the internet has never heard of the word 'gamer.' But is it just someone who likes games? Or is it something deeper?
Video games have basically taken over the world during quarantine. Twitch, a platform based on video game live streams, has seen extreme growth. In February 2020, the average viewers were 1.41 million. May 2021 averages 3.17 million people viewing a stream. As I'm typing this, over 2,800,000 people are watching a live stream on Twitch, most of which are probably watching someone else play a video game. That's more people than the entire nation of Lithuania. League of Legends, GTA, Fortnite, and Minecraft are some of the most popular games on Twitch - and in real life - right now. They've gained players during quarantine, and with that comes subcultures. Sometimes, though, these subcultures go a little too far. There have been doxxing incidents in gaming communities and "stans (super fans)" of certain creators, notably the uber-famous Minecraft YouTuber Dream, have cyberbullied and been extremely toxic on social media. However, on the other end of the spectrum, fans of Grian, a fellow Minecraft YouTuber, donated over $150,000 to SOS Africa, a South African charity, during a fundraiser livestream. Gamers don't have to be constantly watching gaming content, though. Just playing a quick game of Tetris or Temple Run fairly regularly is enough to be a gamer in my opinion. It doesn't matter whether you play Animal Crossing for 30 minutes every other day or take five hours to play Call of Duty daily. Being a gamer shouldn't come with the weight of having to cyberbully or give money to support your favorite creators. Just do what you enjoy - and try not to criticize Dream on Twitter. Summary
Bibliography “Twitch Statistics & Charts.” TwitchTracker, twitchtracker.com/statistics. The economy is always a divisive topic, but we can all agree that monopolies and ripoffs are both detrimental to companies. However, in the video game scene, the market is abundant with them. Let's begin with ripoff games. Games that are carbon copies of existing popular ones - except much worse. If you've watched a second of YouTube, you've probably seen ads trying to get you to click on images of Among Us and Minecraft, but redirect you to a ripoff site. The Among Us games are offline and obviously fake. The countless Minecraft frauds are terrible and ugly. These are objectively bad for both the consumer, who loses sanity, and the company, which loses customers. One obvious alternative to ripoffs is monopolies. It sounds great: no one is stealing a company's ideas and taking away their customers, who are happy with the product. But that becomes irrelevant when looking at real-life examples. NBA 2K holds a death grip on basketball video games, meaning they pack in as many in-game purchases as possible and barely improve the game each year because they know that anyone who wants a basketball video game has to buy their game. Without rivals, companies can price gauge and lower quality of their games without punishment. So, what's the solution? Competition. Pro Evolution Soccer has for years been a rival to FIFA, the more mainstream soccer video game. It wasn't good enough to take away all of FIFA's audience, but encouraged EA to improve their game. Nowadays, although all annual sports video games are pretty repetitive, FIFA is a game of decent quality. Crackdowns on ripoffs and new games made to be competitive with mainstream ones are direly needed to improve games for everyone. Hopefully these things will happen soon so that we all can enjoy video games. Summary
Right now, I'm beginning to work with Unity, a simple and popular game engine. However, it's not the only one. There are countless game engines right now. But which are the biggest and what do they mean?
For a long time, games were made from scratch. In the 1980s, the first game engines were being used, but it wasn't until the 90s that they'd become mainstream. Epic Games - the same company that made Fortnite - released Unreal Engine in 1998. That was a big moment for game development, as companies really turned to game engines. These days, virtually all games have been built in game engines. I've played games on the Frostbite engine like FIFA and Star Wars: Battlefront. Source is a PC engine that Half-Life 2 was made in. IW Engine was used to make Call of Duty. Ubisoft uses Anvil game engine. There are lots of other options too, and many are free and downloadable for anyone to make their own games in. Programs like Unity have made game design very accessible. Game engines are easier to get and more diverse than ever before. If you're passionate about games, you don't have to go to an elite university for eight years - just open up your computer and do a couple Google searches. There are so many different choices and so many different opportunities for anyone to make their very own video game thanks to game engines like Unity. So, the next time that you're angry at software, even something like Google Chrome, just remember: you're using revolutionary technology. Enjoy your unique opportunity, especially in a game engine. Because technology is fascinating and game engines are cool. Buttle, Paul. “The Power Behind Video Games: A Look at Game Engines.” Medium, We The Players, 29 Apr. 2020, medium.com/wetheplayers/the-power-behind-video-games-a-look-at-game-engines-2731315086e0. Summary
When you think of a gamer, 'couch potato' usually comes up. Maybe you're picturing a 9 year old screaming at a television. Maybe you're imagining a famous gaming streamer saying something racist live on camera. However, a new vision of a gamer is emerging: someone focused on creating positive change in the world. Games are no longer just about having fun. Games have a massive impact on the world and the people who play them.
Gaming icons like MrBeast have helped plant of millions of trees, content creators have donated to reputable causes, and as the world has cried out, gamers have joined arms to improve the world. From Minecraft adding anti-racist splash texts to seeing my favorite gaming YouTubers spread the word about protests in India, support the Black Lives Matter Movement, and stand up in other vital moments, it's clear the positive difference gamers make to the world. But what about the negativity? What about violence? What about streamers saying racial slurs? These are legitimate problems in the gaming community, but most gamers aren't like that. It's important for platforms like Twitch to monitor and/or remove this behavior, but you can also make a difference. Be a part of positive gaming communities and don't encourage toxicity or hate. Games often put you in someone else's shoes, fostering empathy, and content creators being committed to making the world a better place while harboring wholesome communities are some of the ways that games make real change. It's up to us to choose whether we game to be toxic and violent or positive and peaceful. It's up to us to show the world that gamers are just like the rest of humanity - if not better - by doing the right thing and surfing the new wave of gaming activism. It's been a new year for about a month, but there haven't been any major releases just yet in terms of video games. However, that doesn't mean this year will be disappointing. There are lots of games slated to release in 2021.
A new Pokémon game is coming out in April. It's a photography-based remake of the 1999 game Pokémon Snap and features hundreds of Pokémon. However, I've never played much of those style of games and I don't have a switch, so I probably won't play it. May brings the new Resident Evil game, but, once again, I haven't played any prior games and therefore I'm not very excited. Supposedly, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is coming sometime in 2021, which I'd really like to play, as I enjoyed previous installments of Ratchet and Clank. However, the game was supposed to come out last year, so it might be delayed. The last two big games this year likewise have undisclosed dates and are sequels. Horizon Forbidden West is the much-anticipated follow up to Horizon Zero Dawn, which had stunning graphics and a compelling storyline. I can't wait to see what the game has to offer. God of War: Ragnarok is the sequel to God of War, which had great graphics and a good story but was a little too complex and sometimes the open world design made it easy to get lost. Hopefully the sequel fixes some of the issues with the original, but it's not a must buy game for me. Hopefully, 2021's gaming scene will be similar to 2020's: successful sequels and unexpected games popping out of nowhere. Now, all we have to do is wait. Summary
2020 has been an interesting year for everyone, even gamers. There have been lots of big video games this year, including The Last of Us 2, Among Us, and Valorant. But there have been some games that haven't done well.
First, let's discuss Fortnite. Yes, it came out in 2017 and peaked in 2018, but the bane of sanity still exists. Why has it declined? As the older readers of my blog know, I used to love Fortnite. I quit because it was impossible to win without investing insane amounts of time into it. Yes, that can help people become addicted, but a casual player like me was turned off by the uneven skill in the player base. Additionally, the player base became very young and annoying. Fortnite's social aspect was terrible. I grew tired of hearing young children curse at me. One last bad thing about Fortnite: listening to the loudest players too much. Implementing bad ideas and bringing back old locations on the map that most players didn't want. Why bring back old things when you could make something new and better? The other game I'm going to look into is Fall Guys. Fall Guys, a cartoony party game, blew up late this summer and looked like it was ready to take over the gaming world. However, it suddenly died. Fall Guys was not a game with great replay value. By beating some of the other players in one parkour-style minigame, a player moves into another level. The cycle repeats until there is one player left, who wins. However, players played the same minigames over and over again, and the developers failed to update the game enough to keep it interesting. Along with the skill differences found in Fortnite, there are lots of clips of streamers raging after dying in both games. One huge difference is that Fall Guys cost enough money to discourage people. Summary
Games seem to be the pinnacle of modern technology these days. All the talk is around the next Minecraft update, new strategies for Among Us, new characters in Fortnite, and new sports games. If it wasn't for politics and COVID, games would be anything anyone talks about. But why? Why are games so popular?
The first ever game was probably wrestling. It makes sense, really: lots of animals wrestle, whether it's competing for mates or just for fun. Obviously, free time comes with ways to pass the time. But what about board games? Senet is considered the first ever board game. Unlike wrestling, there is chance as well as skill. Senet also had religious importance, but there isn't much known about it or its rules. Nowadays, wrestling isn't the most popular game and most people haven't even heard of Senet. However, chance, competition, and physical and mental skill still exist in today's games. It's fun to beat someone and brag about it. But games aren't just about winning. Stress can be addictive and exciting, convincing the player to return. On the other hand, too much stress is bad. The flow state of a mix of boredom and anxiety keeps players attentive and likely to return. Updates also keep games fresh and avoid boredom. Games, like books, help you see into another world. Wouldn't it be cool if you could live on a spaceship, build floating houses, and be a millionaire football player? Yet another enticing element of most games is social interaction. As we're all learning in quarantine, even introverts sometimes need to talk to people. There are notable exceptions in games such as Solitaire, but many games include some way of social interaction. Lastly, good games provide a sense of accomplishment. From beating a dragon to winning the World Cup, many games leave you feeling satisfied. Summary
|
AuthorHI! I'm a 12th grader and on this page, I will blog about me and what I'm going through, both in Game Design class and in life. There are a mix of required blog posts and personal reflections, which you can sort, among other things, below the disclaimer and archives. DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
May 2022
Categories
All
|