Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=172https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1328Gamelog assignment from the classics list session 2 due 2/23 Start Time: 9:45am End Time: 10:40am As I began my second session in Zelda I realized I remember a lot of the game and I was able to bust through the second dungeon in no time. I think one of the most exciting and entrancing parts of Zelda is the music. I get excited the second I turn the game and hear the wonderful theme song playing through with pride. Also the repetitious music played in the dungeons is so compelling in the sense of spooky and dangerous. The music is major play back of good old times when I played Zelda as a kid. I think the use of the same music over and over in the game would be something frowned upon in games made now days but it also engraves the feeling of the game into a song so that any time you hear it you think of the excitement of the game. Also the sound effects of killing monsters, the boss breathing hard, being damaged, all these sound make the game play even more exciting. I believe the one thing that all players feel after a session of Zelda is pride. Proud of figuring out the puzzle, proud that I beat the fourth dungeon, proud that I beat the whole game. Unlike most game Zelda doesn’t make players more powerful if they continue to kill random monsters and just ignore the story. The bragging rights come from beating parts of the game, experiencing one of the best designed games of all time. There certainly is a thrill from killing monsters and just exploring the gameworld but the game relies on delayed gratification of getting through short term goals that lead to the ultimate goal of beating the game. I would like to know more story throughout the gameplay just because Zelda is such an interesting game I would like to know what’s going on as I play, but I enjoy the original Zelda better then any of the newer Zelda games that have a defined story so the style of letting the player image what’s going on is very effective. Zelda is an amazing game in all accounts even though there are major design features missing such as story, instruction, and setting but the game still flows. I believe that even though this is a very analyzed game that came out many years ago, it is a more complex design that in some senses is more evolved than most games that are made in present day. Zelda could teach us a lot about making games that let the player experience rather than showing the player a experience.Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:09:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1328&iddiary=2841https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1328Gamelog assignment from the classics list due 2/23 Start Time: 8:20am End Time: 9:10am The Legend of Zelda is a game that defined the adventure genre and even though I have played through and beat the game in the past I found myself drawn to playing it again for this assignment because I still enjoy its style and puzzles. Zelda Is very unique in the fact that the game begins without explanation or tutorial and lets the player figure out the controls abilities and story through playing the game. Even finding the dungeons takes skill or random luck because you don’t get pointed in the direction of the next dungeon after beating the previous one. The whole game lets the player figure things out for themselves. Though this would seem like a bad thing for most games especially with current games that have dozens of bottoms combos and features but in this classic NES game it lets the player explore and learn which surprisingly increases the gameplay experience. When I started playing again for this assignment I realized how much I enjoy this top down style of game play because it allows for a cool style of fighting and dodging enemies. I found that dodging enemy fire is still hard even with my increased gaming skill from when I last played the game. The enemies are well thought out in the sense of being hard yet beatable. I found the enemies that pop out of the sand hard to deal with but the move back when you hit them so as long as you keep them in front of you its very doable. As for the level design, everything is masterful from the outside gameworld to the perfectly constructed dungeons. The dungeons are especially well done in the sense that there are puzzles that must be done in order and there are secrets to get to but everything is logical and possible for the player to figure out. For example, the player may see there’s an extra room on the map but no door to get there so the player places a bomb on the wall and BOOM! you solved the puzzle. For a game without instructions Zelda is very user friendly. The core game mechanic is pretty simple: shoot sword if you have full health otherwise run up and stab the monster, find a way to open the door by getting a key or pushing a block, throw boomerang to stop enemy then run up and hit him. The amount of options available continue to grow as the player beats dungeons such as acquiring the ladder to get across small bodies of water. This reward of more items/abilities and more health keeps the player interested because the levels get harder but the items get better thus rewarding the player for continued play. Even though there are a number of rewards then game can still get incredible frustrating because the puzzles get increasingly difficult. The main problem I have ran across is finding the next dungeon which makes it hard to progress the game by beating a dungeon if you can’t find it. The uniqueness of Zelda is unmatched by any game to date because it allows the player to experience the game for themselves rather than being led through and experience.Sun, 18 Feb 2007 12:33:31 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1328&iddiary=2840https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1131Gamelog assignment: game of choice due 2/9/07 Start Time: 8:45 End Time: 9:30 The second session of Excite Truck was slightly more fruitful in the sense that I took first place in four tracks during one session which isn’t too impressive but its better then my first game session. On the super excite difficulty the game takes much more driving to get the highest ranking of S grade. Its good that the designers added the boosted difficulty because the game is fast and easy on the excite setting. I was worried that is wasn’t anything more than a more difficult run of the same courses but apparently there is a whole new “platinum” track and another ten new trucks. Once again I see how the developers spent time perfecting what they had rather than mass quantity. The detail in Excite truck is amazing for the computing power available to the Wii console. The amazing jumps provided me with a view of the whole environment which is huge and preloaded so that you can actually see the whole track at once if you get a high enough jump. I found that the truck models themselves are very detailed and extravagant. When I crashed into trees or other cars the impact would show a meaningful crash. For example, if the front end hit a tree on the right side, the whole side would crumple and the tire would fly off. The whole truck has great collision detection. I notice that the gameworld itself has great detail as well. When hitting a palm tree in Fiji the coconuts fall off the tree to the ground around the truck. The world is very polished, even the snowy Antarctica has it’s own friction issues. The complexity of the game is more than a usual racing genre game. There is a turbo meter which heats up if you turbo too often but the temp goes down over time or if you drive through water. Sometimes I would go out of my way to drive through a river just to get more turbo. The scoring system is also a change in style where even if you come in first you might not win. The game relies on stars and they are accumulated by doing stunts or by crashing over players. Also, you get more stars if you come in first. The many different venues of playing makes a normal driving game into a motion censored enjoyable game.Sat, 03 Feb 2007 23:50:18 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1131&iddiary=2433https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1131Gamelog assignment: game of choice due 2/9/07 Start Time: 7:30 End Time: 8:30 Excite Truck is one of the lunch titles for the Nintendo Wii and though most lunch titles are not polished by their deadline, Excite Truck has a great feel that is not only fun but inventive. I find that most racing games do not keep my interest for long because racing involves highly repetitive game play, but excite truck has been very successful at keeping me interested for many reasons including the great control setup. I began playing the game during this session with the goal of getting the “gold” tracks unlocked which requires beating all the silver tracks with a least a B ranking. After playing the second track over twice, because I got too few stars to get a B rank, I stopped trying to complete the track and just go for high scores on smashing the CPU trucks. Its very enjoyable to speed up to another truck and hit it from behind right as its going off a jump and make it fly out of control. Even when I wasn’t preoccupied with smashing trucks I was busy going for the biggest air or long drifts. After playing for about an hour I didn’t even get through the “silver” tracks but I was still completely satisfied with the experience. The levels in Excite Truck are well designed with every detail thought out. Though I was disappointed with the appearance of only six different levels so far I can see why they choose to polish the already made levels instead of making more that wouldn’t be finished. The levels involve running across exclamation marks in the road that morph the terrain ahead which I though was a nice way to ad in jumps but also reward player for staying on the designed track. These small power style rewards make the development by the designer more meaningful. Since a designer can plant the exclamation mark in the road and make it where you jump into the air where you see the road ahead and what short cuts are available the designer can make the player go where he/she wants the player to go by morphing the terrain. This led to event occurring such as a oil tanker crashing through the ice and hitting the players in front of me as I hit the exclamation point. These new design features added to the already enriched racing. By far the best feature of Excite Truck is the control which is motion censored using the Wii controller. You hold the controller in your hands and tilt it to steer around turns or to tilt up or down for more air off of jumps. Not only is this kind of control more fun to play with, it also gives the arcade style feeling of having a steering wheel to drive with. The controls add in so much more enjoyment (and sometimes difficulty) to the game it takes a mediocre racing game and makes it exceptional in the genre. The controller reacts surprisingly well and gives more control (i.e control while flying) then normal racing does. The game takes racing and erases the physics and hardcore simulation and replaces it with new and innovating gameplay. I think this change by developers was an excellent move because it also makes players much more active in playing. The more active the players are the more they enjoy the game.Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:48:22 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1131&iddiary=2432https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=905Gamelog on Super Mario Bros. 3 from classics list due 1/31/07 session 2 Start Time: 3:00 End Time: 4:00 After playing a second time I began to question the game-world that Mario comes from and I realized the whole setting is rather strange. Mario is a jumping plumber, Peach keeps getting kidnapped by a dinosaur, toad is a mushroom head character, and who knows about the rest of the enemies. It made me wonder why this game is so good and critically acclaimed and the only why I could reason with it is that the mix between perfect game design and a completely fictional (that no one can question or relate to) makes a great game. The fact that nothing is believable makes the game more enjoyable then playing as a solider fighting real enemies. The fact that a fat plumber is the hero just makes the game more enjoyable. Also, the game is designed really well and counts on very few rules which makes for a game of emergence. Each player can get a different experience from playing the game because there are different routes , jumps, abilities and actions that take place even with the linear travel across the level. I like to jump on the guys with the turtle shells even if it doesn’t help me because it’s a strangely fun action. Someone else may go for all the coins where most levels I don’t go at all out of my way for them. Easy to play but definitely hard to master. As I mentioned Mario 3 doesn’t seem to have a strong story involved because there are few “cutscenes” in the game and you aren’t really giving goals or objectives. Though this is normally a bad element in the game, in Mario’s case its just a new way of proceeding using spatial segmentation rather than narrative, but the game value is still present. Overall I was able to get a reasonable ways through the game but it was still hard for me even though there is only two bottoms needing to be pushed. I got mildly frustrated with slipping off moving platforms but it didn’t stop me from trying a few more times until I got through the level and then there is a sense of accomplishment. That is the second most rewarding part in Mario, the feeling of delayed gratification which is right behind jumping on a goomba.Sat, 27 Jan 2007 21:58:41 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=905&iddiary=2033https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=905Gamelog on Super Mario Bros. 3 from classics list due 1/31/07 Start Time: 1:40 End Time: 2:35 I decided to play Mario Bros. 3 because it is considered by many to be the best game of all time and after only fifteen to twenty minutes I can see why it is so often praised. I have played Super Mario 3 when I was young but coming back after many years I realized there is a lot I have forgot. Like most NES games Super Mario 3 is very unforgiving. I spent a few minutes on the first level just trying to get a grasp on the feel of the controls and how you can make longer jumps by holding the run botton and jumoing but you have a better chance of sliding off the edge. I found that the fear of slipping off the platforms was so great that I didn't explore the levels much but instead proceeded to the end as quickly as possible. Mario 3 is very reliant on gameplay rather than story since I only found out that the king lost his wand and returning it to him returned him to his natural form. Even without a serious story to drive the player on it still keeps the player very interested throughout play. I fdound that the challenged offered by each new platform is very addicting to try to master. For example, the third level starts the moving platforms that if you run too fast to jump on the you usually go right off the edge and it took me a few times to get it. The design of reasonable but yet substantial challenges is excellently created by this game that is more than fifteen years old. The level design is perfect in the combo of flow of levels working in the strange Mario world and the difficult but do-able challenges made by platformer placement and enemy occurance. The game keeps the player interest because even when I was frustrated from falling off the edge I was still very satisfied by jumping on a goomba and having it flatten under Mario. The whole experience is enjoyable. The sound is also very well placed in that the perfect little tune comes on when you fall off the edge or the suspense music in the castle. The music is very good but it is a bit short sided in the way that its not always presentd or noticeable. I wouldn't normally draw attension to the music but after playing super mario world and mario 64 I can tell that it was greatly improved in later games by adding more dynamic music and sound effects. The character Mario is as loveable and random as ever. I'm quite confused why there is a plummer jumping around everywhere, but his ability to get bigger and /or throw fire or grow a tail is quite fun. I think Mario is a very enjoyable character even in his early days of Mario 3. The way he jumps around very bounce and has a smile all the time makes the character dsomeone you can get attached to. His abilities are great too, I found that once I got his tail to make him float I was much more careful not to get hurt because the ability makes jumping to platforms much easier. I'm going to continue with my next session the report back.Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:22:24 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=905&iddiary=2029https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=650Gamelog #2 Session #2 for CS 80K Start Time: 5:20 End Time: 6:15 Assignment due 1/19/07 After taking a second look a Kirby I considered some different properties of the game as I advanced from stage 2 to stage 4. I began to understand the context the story is in a bit more though having not beat the game the player wouldn't know at all about the story since it is reliant on the end of the game. Its all about a dreamland which makes since that there are strange rooms that are purple or walking bombs or polarbears in trees. It all has to do with Kirby saving dreamland. Even though a player just starting out doesn't know the context, he/she can still gain an attachment with Kirby the main character. Everything about the character is lovable. The way he looks and the little arm movements when he's flying, the whole combination makes the player get attached to Kirby. I found myself looking for or desperatly trying to keep the freeze ability because I like the way Kirby looks in his blue color. I became attached to the progression of Kirby rather than the story that only unfolds in the end. It is unusual to have a game where the character prgresses without having levels but the unvealing of new monsters to suck up makes for progression anyhow. This keeps the player interested in the game even if the colorful level design doesn't. The boss fights are surprisingly innovative considering that there is little AI that involves reaction to the player. The bosses stick to patterns of providing Kirby with some sort of weapon by attacking him with a suckable item. This happens in each fight but the changes in the appearance, pattern and level make each fight surprisingly innovative. My favorite is the fight with Meta-knight where you both fight with swords, but the more innovative would have to be the Sun/Moon boss. The sun and moon fight you but take separate turns in the sky. If Kirby has a range ability to shoot them with then battle is not too bad but if he has to get up close then there's trouble since both bosses can't be touched and they charge you. The boss in the sky sends down either stars or ultra-vilolate rays (I guess). This is where the right planning by going into the fight with a good ability and knowing which strategies work makes things easy. For example, if you have super jump then when each boss goes to jump on you then you can jump up into them and they take damage. The problem is if they charge you straight on, your ability is worthless. This is how the game is complex, by adding the different ways to victory. Overall the game is rather easy. I got to stage 4 and I was trying to play around with everything in Kirby's world. I think there is about 8 stages which means a long sitting and a good player would equal game completion. I plan on using a lot of the elements in this game in my game maker game. The levels are colorful and strange but still appropriate which is what I would like to go for. I like the design of the levels where it never feels like your going in a line from left to right but sometimes going up or changing areas part way. All these level design factors are what I want to happen in my game. Kirby is an excellent game that pushes the NES to the limit.Sun, 14 Jan 2007 21:06:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=650&iddiary=1491https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=650Gamelog #2 for CDS 80k Start Time: 4:00 End Time: 4:55 Kirby's Adventure n the classics list for assignment due 1/19/07 Kirby's Adventure is a very unique experience even for a platformer on the NES. Kirby is a very colorful game that displays a very dreamland feeling, which has to do with the story. The game doesn't have much odf a story but it really doesn't need one since the gameplay is the highlight. You don't seem to care what sort of strange thing (i.e a polarbear in a tree) your defeating as long as you get new abilities by sucking up enemies. The level design is very well done and through the levels don't make since in general they do flow together. For example, your in a strange tropical level with water and palm trees and you come across a warp star that takes you to a cloud area where everything is different. It makes it fluid because of the stars and the make-believe but still realistic nature. When your in the main "lobby" choosing your level you can see the background behind the entrance what sort of level it is. Also, if its a cloud level the stage is higher to enter. All these things together make the abtract levels blend. I enjoy playing the game because I get a since of emergence from the different strategies that are avalible from Kirby's many abilities. Kirby gains abilities from sucking up monsters and using their abilities which also changes his appreance. Since their are many different monsters you get to choose what ability works best for you. I found that using the rock ability is very effective when fighting the alarm-clock subboss. Usually I shoot at him with the beam ability or somthing like that back floating above his head and turing into a rock works perfectly and you can't get hurt while in this form. Sometimes abilities don't work so well against certain monsters. For instance, the backdrop subboss can't be hurt by the wheel abilty because as you speed towards him he just pickds you up and back-slams you. So using certain abilties against the right foe can create a good sense of emergence in a platform game. The fighting, abilities, and very cheerful/original premise makes Kirby very enjoyable. I'm going to do my second session now.Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:39:09 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=650&iddiary=1490https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=421Part Two of the Gamelog assginment dur 1/12/07 start time: 9:10 end time: 10:05 After returning for a second round of game play of Tiny Toons I began to see some very solid design features. For example, most music was very stage appropriate like the ship stage with the boat, sky and most everything is a happy orange and the music is this cheery sailor tune that makes you get into the level and really enjoy the gameplay. Also, when playing through the castle level again (yeah again *sigh) I noticed that the music was very erie when a bass onldy every once in a while to ad to suspense. The elemet of music is very important in a game and is very enjoyable in Tiny Toons. The problem I had with the music is that it stranglely resembled Kirby and so did the whole ship level, it was very well made so I hope that was just because it was copied from another game. I also found that the characters play an even bigger role in the gameplay then I had though. The cat is able to use its claws to grab onto walls in order to save from death, the duck has a special whirl wave underwater that none of the others can do and Buster has enough speed to out run the girl that's in love. I found that there is a lot more methods to be used before the level starts in order to get through easier. I choose the wrong character on accident for one level and found that without following the design that the developers have created it becomes very difficult to get anywhere in the game. I found that the only real complexities in the game was picking the right character but even that is easy because there are only three choices. The rest of the game is skill and timing. I wasn't able to find any secrets or cheats like in Mario and that could be cause I didn't run across them or more likely they aren't there. I plan on making a platformer for my game design project so this game does help me because I know what was enjoyable and what was rediculous. I would try to take the essential platforming elements from this game, like making a lot of easy jumps then a hard one or two to make the player feel like they have accomplished something. Also the constant bombardment to keep the player interested, nothing impossible but constant easy tasks and then throw in larger ones to finish off. I will try to aviod the problem Tiny Toons had of constant randomness where nothing makes sense and each level (though well designed) doesn't come together with the previous one. One of the best and obviously main features in the game is the option to choose multiple players and I feel this is Tiny Toon's strongest feature so I will try to incorrporate it into my platformer. Overall the game has a nice feel to it but if you didn't know the show Tiny Toons then it would be not comparable to Mario or Kirby. The levels are much like Mario where your constantly trying to stay above an imaginary bottom which I find myself wondering why is it that you standing on some random piece of grass that seems to be higher then everywhere else? and why is it so bad that you go down? In a good level where there's lava under you or your obviously hundreds of feet in the air because your on a cloud I can understand falling being a problem but in spots there was a strangle feeling that this was an ordinary piece of dirt and if the duck doesn't make it to the next one then he was going to be fine. Though this isn't a major flaw it does bring in the idea of level design that makes sense. Hitting spikes hurts you (true, true) but why does setting in a puddle? This game does a good job on most accounts of making good sensable levels but things like lack of flow, no story, and no complexity explain why games have advanced some much since 1991. A very enjoyable game overall and it was interesting to go back play it with a closer examination. Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:44:32 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=421&iddiary=1105https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=421GameLog for CS 80K assignment due 1/12/07 Start time 8:05pm End time 8:55pm I decided to play Tiny Toon's because when I was younger I had rented the game a lot because I was a Tiny Toon fan and found that the game was enjoyable on many levels. Coming back to the game after many years I still find the game quite fun but on a different level. Tiny Toons is quite a standard platformer which is to no surprise because of the period it came out in, but even with the fact its not original has still been fun and entertaining. The characters are well thoughout because they are from a TV show and their moves reflect that of those in the show. For example, Buster Bunny can hop high and Taz can do a short inveriable devil spin. Each different ability works on a certain level or better against certain creatures. All and all the characters are very fun to see the differences and try playing, but the one interesting thing I found was how they were animated. Just like a standard sprite they are in 2D but the interesting thing is that they are not outlined in black but instead in the color of the character. For instance, the duck is green and outlined in green which makes it hard to see him with a green background. This is not a big deal but I thought it strange. So far in my play I am yet to encouter a story at all. It starts you out much like the original Mario with no explaination. The game seems to be moving in a certain direction with each stage numbered but what is going on is unknown to the player. The story isn't there so that game relies on gameplay which works out well since platformers are fun. There is the common jump and try not to fall off the edge and also the time the jump for when the bad guy is turned around. At this point everything is standard but it is still the beggining of the game so it could change. The level design seems to be reasonable but the scheme is off the wall. One level your outside jumping from place to place then the next level your in a unknown castle with some odf the same enemies and a evil scientist as the boss. Maybe these actions go along with the show but as for level design, the levels are good but the flow is not. Players should stay reasonably interested in the game because it has fun elements but the game is on the original nintendo which translates into: unforgiving. The game is very hard at point even on the first area. For example, there is a girl that chances you at the end ofd the second level of each area. She apparently loves you and you lose if she gives a kiss but the problem is no matter how many lives you have if she touches you you go back to the beginning of the area and that can happen over and over again. The game is hard and that is why it will be rewarding if I am able to beat it. I will continue play and then write more.Tue, 09 Jan 2007 23:38:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=421&iddiary=1098