Did you discover something that you didn’t expect? I found that games were far less superficial than what they appear. The nature and design of a game, in a lot of cases, runs far deeper than I first believed. I now understand how much work goes into the development of the base mechanics of a game to… [Read more…]
October 13, 2010
I was thinking about a game based around CSI, being one of my old favourite shows. There have been games made before but they have all been pretty terrible. So here is my attempt at designing a character creation system for the game “CSI”. What are the functional and cosmetic attributes? How do they affect play?… [Read more…]
October 12, 2010
This week there are two games to play, both by Stephen Levelle (increpare): Home Missing How do these games make you feel? How does the gameplay contribute to the feeling? Missing made me feel quite lonely and sad. The story of a person looking for there son in a seemingly futile pursuit. You can walk around asking… [Read more…]
September 28, 2010
What kinds of expectations do computer game players have when they come to a new game? It is hard to comment on this being such a large question. I think the expectations to tend to be quite different based on the genre and the audience. I will attempt to generalise. Gamers generally expect to see something… [Read more…]
September 27, 2010
This week’s game is Crayon Physics Deluxe by Petri Purho. What different kinds of approaches do people take? There seem to be three main approaches people take when they attempt these puzzles. There first is a solution that simply solves the puzzle; the player just attempts to solve the puzzle given what they know about the mechanics… [Read more…]
September 19, 2010
Watch Daniel Floyd’s video on Videogames and Storytelling. What is the role of story in games? Stories actively connect the player with the game; they provide a reason to continue playing and also assist in emerging the player in the experience. There have been a fair few times I’ve taken up the controls of a new game, played… [Read more…]
September 18, 2010
What makes learning fun? There is a inherent reward in learning something new. Making a previous unknown connection between ideas gives us that fantastic “Ohhhhh!” moment. It genuinely feels good to understand a concept that was previously unknown or unexplored. There needs to be some underlying desire to obtain this new knowledge. Being forced to learn things is… [Read more…]
September 17, 2010
This week’s game is Small Worlds: Where is the fun in this game? In the exploration and discovery of these interesting and unique environments. A lot of the levels feel as though you are not supposed to be looking around where you are which gives the game a satisfying, subversive feel – exploration into areas where people have… [Read more…]
August 22, 2010
What difference does the controller make to the experience of gaming? A controller changes the way a game feels dramatically, it provides a different interface with which you interact with the game; a joystick feels quite different to play with than gamepad. This is because of the methods of interactions; buttons, directional pads, analogue stick, motion, trigger, tackpad,… [Read more…]
August 21, 2010
This weeks game to play is Galcon Fusion by Phil Hassey. This game contains several feedback loops. What are they? There are 3 main ones I have found during my brief play. The first is a positive feedback loop; the more planets you own, the more ships you generate in total. Each planet generates ships at… [Read more…]
November 8, 2010
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